A single mother of four was yesterday left to pick up the pieces of her life and her demolished shack after the Katima Mulilo town council razed the Lwanyanda informal settlement, which she called home.
“This is the second time I’m being evicted, after I was evicted from Cowboy. Where will I go with my kids because my house has been demolished?” asked Lwanyanda resident Matakala Mukupi. The town council yesterday began with the demolition of those structures which were erected illegally on municipal land. This after council obtained a court order dated 12 August 2022. “I was not offered a place, and I never refused to go to Nova. I registered to get a plot, but every time they were coming to give plots, my name was not on the list. Therefore, I decided to settle here at Lwanyanda. I am a Namibian citizen, but now I am treated like a foreigner,” she said sadly.
Her sentiments were dismissed by town council officials, who are adamant that all the residents who were in Lwanyanda were identified and offered plots at Nova.
Another resident, Mwaka Matengu, could not contain her emotions as she began to cry when the bulldozer approached her house.
According to the court order, illegal settlers were to vacate the land measuring about 76 hectares within 10 days from the day the order was given.
“The Namibian Police Force is directed to take such reasonable steps as may be necessary to assist the temporary deputy sheriff of the district of Katima Mulilo to enforce compliance with the orders dated 7 October 2020 and 27 January 2021,” reads the court order. Despite residents being served with the court order, they still refused to move. This necessitated the deputy sheriff to seek assistance from the police to ensure that the residents complied with the court order.
Speaking during a media briefing before the demolition exercise commenced, acting deputy sheriff Vernon Lutibezi reiterated that the residents were given a notice to move, but they refused.
After the 10 days lapsed, they were given a grace period, but still refused to move.
“They were properly served with the court order. If they don’t agree, they have to challenge it in court”, he said. “If they refuse to obey, it means they are in contempt of court, and the court can take serious action. Either they can be arrested, or any other remedial action, depending on the circumstances of each case.”
The acting deputy sheriff, with the
assistance of the police, then proceeded with the demolition exercise. Residents were breathing fire and started throwing stones at the law-enforcement officers, injuring some. Members of the Special Reserve Force, who were on standby, had to intervene and fired rubber bullets. The illegal settlers retreated, and some were apprehended in the process. Those who spoke to the media claimed they had nowhere to go as the town council had failed to provide them with plots.
Officials from the town council, who did not want to speak on record, stated that
Lwanyanda residents were relocated to Nova, a settlement that was hastily created for them, and only 15 of them had refused to be relocated. When others relocated, some sold their legally-acquired plots, and started coming back to
settle again in the illegal location.
Mukupi, however, alleges that she was always willing to move to Nova, but was never given a plot there.
“I don’t know where I am going to go. I am a single mother of four. I am appealing to our political leaders, whom we have put in power, to hear our cries,” she added. The demolition exercise continued unabated, and is set to continue until all structures erected illegally on the 76 hectares of land, which was already sold to a developer years ago, are demolished.