Stubborn squatters face eviction

THE Windhoek City Council this week gave the go-ahead for the eviction of 16 families from land belonging to two build-together groups in the Goreangab informal settlement.

The decision was taken at Wednesday’s monthly council meeting.It comes after at least four years of the municipality, the two savings groups and the Shack Dwellers Association trying in vain to get the illegal residents to relocate to other parts of the city.The land, a number of erven in Goreangab’s Extension Two area, was sold by the City of Windhoek to the Step by Step Saving Group and the Uulalelo Auhe Okonguloshi Saving Group in October 2005.The City has since acknowledged that it neglected to do a proper consultation before selling the land, which resulted in people who are not part of the savings groups living on it after the sale.Five non-member families stay on land belonging to the Step by Step Group. Eleven other households live on the Uulalelo Auhe Okonguloshi group’s land.The presence of the non-member families has hampered plans by the savings groups to fully occupy and develop their properties, leading to conflict.A number of the group members currently live on land adjacent to that allocated to them, while some of the non-members live on the plots owned by the group.Group members say they want to start building brick houses, and have threatened to demolish the non-members’ illegal structures. ‘I’m on my land, but I can’t start building without the rest of my group. Later on there might be questions around what whoever did with the money,’ Hileni Nakafingo of the Uulalelo group said yesterday.The municipality has tried a number of remedies to solve the situation over the years, including clearing and putting up communal services like toilets and water for the non-members in the various Otjomuise informal townships, as well as in Okahandja Park.Another solution, which Nakafingo said was agreed to between his group and the non-members, was the simple swapping of residences.’With Step by Step I know they’ve decided to move those guys to Otjomuise. But that’s not necessary with us. We even shook on it at one point. Our members (living on the municipal ground adjacent to the group’s land) were just supposed to swap with the non-members who live on our ground,’ Nakafingo said.The non-members have also been given the option of joining the two savings groups, although they were then required to pay more than the original members in order to catch up with payments.Original members contribute N$100 a month, and it was decided that non-members should pay an initial deposit of N$1 500, followed by N$300 a monthly. One man has so far accepted this agreement, starting with a deposit of N$2 000.None of the non-member representatives could be reached for comment yesterday to explain why they refuse to be relocated or to join the groups.The City’s records however reflect a number of responses received from those families.One of them, Paulina Thomas, said last year that the erf offered her in Otjomuise was too small.The City Council on Wednesday night approved recommendations by its management committee that the non-members be issued with relocation notices.If they still refuse to move, the City said it will take legal action through the Shack Dwellers Federation on behalf of the savings groups.