POLICE at Walvis Bay said they would not allow a sit-in demonstration in front of the Walvis Bay municipality by disgruntled residents.
More than 3 400 residents have indicated that they intended to stage a demonstration in protest against alleged corruption at the Walvis Bay town council.
They allege that some councillors were involved in corrupt land transactions and self-enrichment schemes.
A sit-in planned for Saturday did not take place because the municipality and police were not notified of the intended demonstration.
Erongo police commissioner, Andreas Nelumbu, said he would not allow the sit-in.
“I will never allow them to camp there; they better try other ways to communicate their grievances, but if it is camping in front of the municipality, they better not try,” he said in an interview with Nampa on Monday.
He said as long as the municipality was against the plan, he would remove the demonstrators – irrespective of whether the police were informed of the demonstrations or not.
“People should not confuse the right to freedom of expression with anarchy,” Nelumbu stressed, adding that the municipality had requested him to stop the demonstrators from going ahead because it did not want demonstrators camping out on municipal property.
“As much as it is their right to demonstrate, it is also the municipality’s right to refuse them the right to camp there. As a law enforcement officer, I will do what is expected of me,” said the commissioner.
Community activist Kenneth Iilonga, who heads the demonstrators, on Tuesday told Nampa that they informed the police of their plans on Monday, and intended commencing with the sit-in demonstration this coming Saturday. He said they were tired of being landless, while the local councillors allegedly misused their positions to acquire land for themselves and their acquaintances.
The Public Gatherings Proclamation (Act No 23 of 1989), required three days’ notice to the police for public gatherings involving more than 20 people.
The municipality’s manager of public relations, Kevin Adams, on Tuesday could not confirm that the police had been requested to intervene.
A petition containing the demonstrators’ grievances was handed to the town council in December.
The municipality’s chief executive officer, Muronga Haingura, on Monday said that he had asked the council’s lawyer to approach Iilonga for proof of the allegations so that they could take action.
Iilonga, however, said he refused to hand over the proof to the lawyer, and would only cooperate with the Anti-Corruption Commission.
– Nampa
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