It’s someone else’s land and they knew it – Walvis councillor

Walvis Bay Rural constituency regional councillor Donatus Tegako says evicted residents at the town should have consulted the council before taking land matters into their own hands.

This comes after residents from Otweya settlement were evicted from National Housing Enterprise (NHE) land on Saturday night.

Tegako yesterday said the residents were, however, evicted because they did not follow the right procedures.

Several families have been sleeping outside since Saturday after they were told last week to vacate the NHE land they have built shacks on.

The residents, of which some have been living on this land for the past six months, however, ignored the notice.

This resulted in officials from the Walvis Bay municipality, the NHE and law-enforcement agencies evicting them over the weekend.

Tegako said he had noticed the illegal structures earlier and tried to explain to the residents they could get in trouble.

“They called me when they were forced to remove the structures, but my hands are tied. It is someone else’s land and they knew it.

“They never came to my office to explain their situation before putting up the shacks . . .

“I asked if they approached the municipality before putting up their shacks. It is really not nice to just decide to turn the town into a banana town,” he said.

Representing about 70 households, Bridgette Tsamases yesterday said the group erected shacks on NHE land as they had nowhere else to go.

“Three weeks ago the NHE told us to leave. They said they would come on Friday. They did not show up. They came on Saturday and asked us to leave voluntarily.

“We have been sleeping outside. This land has been empty for years. It is not used. We want the municipality and the NHE to negotiate. The NHE can just give the money back to the municipality so we can live here,” she said.

NHE spokesperson Mutonga Matali advised people to desist from occupying land illegally, adding there are plans to build houses on the occupied land.

“That area is earmarked for a huge project which will result in the development of 151 affordable and quality houses for coastal residents.

“The NHE is finalising internal processes. Land servicing of that area is expected to start in October. Notifications went out last week, and everyone was expected to vacate by Saturday, however, some illegal occupants claimed they only learned about the eviction notice on Saturday, thus they were given until Wednesday (today) to vacate,” he said.

Matali thanked leaders and law enforcers at the town, who have urged the remaining occupants to obey the call to leave the area by today, for their positive attitude.