Presidential hopeful Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is involved in a family dispute over a house she attempted to keep from being auctioned off by the City of Windhoek.
The house in question is in Windhoek’s Shandubala area, which belonged to her cousin Justina Sheehama and her husband, Moses Lisias.
The two ran into municipal debt due to outstanding rates and taxes, as well as utilities amounting to N$108 000 by 2007.
Lisias says he bought a piece of land in 1983 and spent over N$200 000 on the construction of the house.
“The problem arose when I lost my job. That is how I started accumulating debts on the house,” he says.
Lisias says he then approached Nandi-Ndaitwah to help him settle the debt.
According to a lawyer’s account, Nandi-Ndaitwah has paid the municipality N$30 000.
Sixteen years later Lisias is about to be evicted from the house.
He says he only found out the house had actually been sold when he went to pay the municipal bills.
He discovered that the bills were made out to Nandi-Ndaitwah’s sister, Canner Kalimba, and her husband, Theopulus, as well as their daughter Mpingana.
“I was told . . . I am old and will be sent to Owamboland, while my relatives will look after the house,” he says.
Lisias now believes he and his wife have been cheated out of the house.
He is now seeking an audience with Nandi-Ndaitwah to solve the issue.
Nandi-Ndaitwah could yesterday not be reached for comment, while Kalimba said she was not aware of the sale of the house.
“My sister approached me about the house . . . I told her if we want to assist, it must be sold to a member of the family so that the debt could be cleared, but Lisias and his family could stay in the house while we were working on a solution,” she said.
Kalimba said she and her husband were sent a deed of sale for the house.
She said the documents were signed by Lisias and his wife as well.
Kalimba then took the document to Nedbank, where she took out a loan of N$75 950. This money, together with Ndandi-Ndaitwah’s contribution, was then paid over to the municipality.
Kalimba says municipal accounts were then charged to her name.
“I went to Windhoek and met with Lisias’ wife, who was happy that her cousin bought the house. . . I then told Lisias the house was in my name, and asked him what his contribution towards rates and taxes would be,” she said.
Kalimba said Lisias eventually promised to contribute N$300 a month, but has failed to honour the agreement.
She claimed he constructed backyard shacks in the yard of the house, which he rented out. “The condition of the house started to deteriorate . . . I sat him down and proposed that we renovate the house and rent it out at a market-related price,” she said.
Kalimba said she asked Lisias and his wife to move out of the house while it was being renovated.
She, however, ended up selling the house to her daughter, Mpingana, because she could no longer carry the bills alone.
She said Nandi-Ndaitwah has nothing to do with the house or the sale thereof.
A High Court ruling in June ordered Lisias and his children to vacate the property.
Windhoek High Court judge Marlene Tommasi in delivering her judgement said Lisias’ failure to call Nandi-Ndaitwah as a witness adversely impacted his case.
In her witness statement, Kalimba said she warned against entering into any verbal arrangements to settle the debt to temporarily stave off auctioning.
According to court documents, the deputy sheriff in 2012 attempted to evict Lisias and his children, but after they indicated they are the lawful owners of the property, the latter did not insist on evicting them.
On 18 January 2011 Kalimba transferred the property to Mpingana.
Lisias says he noticed in 2017 that the municipal account was erroneously or fraudulently transferred to Mpingana, and that she agreed to rectify it. Mpingana, however, breached this agreement, Lisias says, by selling the property to Eino Amaambo for N$470 000 without any agreement.
Mpingana said she made various attempts to ask Lisias and his children to vacate the property in order to allow her to renovate it.
Amaambo yesterday said he was not aware of the existing dispute when he bought the property.
“Since 2018 I couldn’t move in. The house is in my name. At the municipality all the debts are reflecting on me, and it gives me bad credit,” he said.
He says he has given Lisias and his children until Wednesday to vacate the house.
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