THE Ministry of Regional and Local Government last week intervened in the ownership dispute involving the Tsumeb municipality and two residents over a house in Nomtsoub suburb.
The house in which Bernadine Zatjinda stays, belongs to the municipality but was sold to Joseph Kambuta, whose father used to rent from the municipality but relinquished when he moved to stay in the north.
The sale of the house to Kambuta was allegedly done with the assistance of municipality officials resulting in Zatjinda being evicted on several occasions.
Although there was nobody to comment from the ministry, The Namibian understands that the local government ministry has asked the municipality to put on hold any eviction while investigations into the ownership wrangle are carried out.
Tsumeb chief executive officer (CEO) Archie Benjamin confirmed that the eviction of Zatjinda from the house has been put on hold and the matter is being handled by their lawyers.
“The dispute over this house has been going on for some time now. We have decided to consult our lawyers Conradie and Damaseb for the way forward,” he said, adding that the house was registered in Zatjinda’s name before it was sold to Kambuta. He could, however, not explain how this happened.
The Tsumeb Municipality has rented out houses to residents in Nomtsoub township since 1940 but has now decided to sell them to residents. The municipal policy is that when selling houses it rented out to residents, the sitting tenants under whom the houses are registered get the first preference to buy the houses and Zatjinda says she is entitled to that right of first refusal.
Zatjinda claims that the municipality did not inform her of the decision to sell the house. As a result of this, she is refusing to vacate the property.
She started staying at the house in 2004 but has been officially renting the house from the municipality since 2009 when it was registered in her name.
Zatjinda claims that Kambuta is working in cahoots with some municipal officials to rob her of the property.
“Had it not been for Nico Kaiyamo (a community activist) and the Tsumeb Community Concerned Group (TCCG) I would have been in the street by now. At least now I can stay in the house until the ministry has investigated this matter. No one is talking to me, not even the municipality whom I pay every month. I have to hear things from the gentleman who bought the house. This is not fair at all,” Zatjinda said in a telephone interview with The Namibian.
Sources said that Kaiyamo and the TCCG wrote to the ministry seeking its intervention in the matter and the ministry promised to look into the matter. Kaiyamo said that it is about time the community stands up to the municipality. “There has been too many underhand deals involving councillors and some corrupt officials in the municipality. Our patience does not mean weakness,” Kaiyamo said.
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