Walvis Bay shack fire not declared a disaster

THE fire that destroyed 27 shacks at the Twaloloka informal settlement at Walvis Bay this week is yet to be declared a disaster, with the authorities still mapping out the way forward.

People who lost homes in the fire are now hosted in tents on a piece of land next to the site where their houses once were.

The eight-year-old Twamona Shapange was playing in the neighbourhood when the fire started and was left with only the clothes on her back.

“All my new school uniforms and stationery that my mother bought me last week have burned out. Our house was in the middle and the fire was too hot for us to go and get anything out,” she said as she picked through the ashes on Thursday morning.

According to information collected thus far, 111 people were left homeless, with 30 of those children, including a two-week-old infant. The people affected also include three pregnant women. One of them is due to deliver her baby this month.

Most of the people are unemployed and some are also on chronic medication. The oldest in the group is a 60-year-old woman.

Walvis Bay Rural constituency regional councillor Donadus Tegako said nothing has been prepared for the people as yet but his office has donated food.

“We gave them tents while a certain aspect of the government is getting involved because we don’t have resources at the regional council level. We offered them what we have while we are waiting on the team from the Office of the Prime Minister. The situation is beyond our control, we don’t have the resources, we are just assisting where we can,” said Tegako.

He added that his office’s budget was depleted and he was waiting on the announcement of the new national budget.

For now, the municipality of Walvis Bay will clear the land where the shacks were so that people can be settled there in accordance with the Covid-19 regulations.

Twaloloka was created in 2015 by backyard squatters at Kuisebmond after homeowners started building flats and increasing rent, which the squatters could not afford.

Independent Patriots for Change leader Panduleni Itula, accompanied by Erongo Regional Council chairperson Ciske Howard and a delegation of the party’s local leadership, visited the site of the fire on Thursday morning.

Itula expressed the opinion that informal settlements should be formalised by giving people land and houses in the same manner that the colonial South African regime created Katutura in Windhoek.

He said this could be done by using funds from public institutions.

“GIPF with N$130 billion. We need on average N$12 billion to clean up the informal settlements. That is a small amount of money compared to the disaster that we are facing. There is no price to human life. We have all that money, let’s invest it in our people,” Itula said.

Erongo regional governor Neville Andre was not on site but said the local leadership was taking charge, and he was waiting for them to brief him.