Oshakati accused of short-changing Sky residents

RESIDENTS of Sky informal settlement at Oshakati who have recently been relocated to Onawa say they have been short-changed by the Oshakati Town Council.

The more than 250 residents say they have lived in the area for more than 30 years and had erected permanent brick structures.

They say the money paid to them by the Oshakati Town Council as compensation for their structures is insufficient to build new homes with, and that they can now only afford to build corrugated iron shacks.

Timotheus Elago (54), one of the relocated residents, says he has refused to sign a relocation lease agreement, because the compensation offered was not on par with what it cost him to build his previous three-bedroom structure.

“I am one of the oldest residents who have been relocated,” he says. “ I have no problem with being relocated, but the issue here is that the town council is cheating us. When they initially came to evaluate my house it was decided the value was N$33 750, but I was told because my house is old and has no paint, they will deduct 70% from that.

“This means I only get N$13 500. What is that? It means I can only afford to live in a shack now. We took the issue up with the mayor, but all he could tell us was this is how things are done. I refuse to sign and take that money, because I don’t understand. I feel cheated,” Elago says.

Ephraim Shimwoshili, another relocated resident, says: “The places we have been relocated to are in the flood plains. If it rains, we are right in the water.

“We will not be able to rebuild our lives, because of the deductions from the compensation offered. If your house had a simple fault, such as a small crack in the wall, and its initial value was N$50 000, they will offer you N$20 000 only. We don’t have toilets, and some of us had businesses. We can’t move those structures to Onawa.

“The mayor says the council was supposed to fill the area out with sand before they moved us, but they did not.”

Oshakati mayor Leonard Hango says the amounts residents have received as compensation is in line with the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform’s current compensation policies. “When we relocated people from Sky we had two categories: Some people lived in zinc shacks and others in brick structures. However, as a council we are not the ones who quantify the value of their houses,” Hango says.

“We have people from land reform with such expertise, and they were brought in to valuate the properties. After the residents received the valued amounts for their structures they complained, and we had to organise a meeting with the land valuators to make the people understand, and they have not returned with more complaints. I thought the responses they received were satisfactory.

“As for those claiming to be settled in a flood plain, I believe where they are now is much better than where they lived. Our people do not appreciate this. The council has done its best for them,” Hango says.