Prime Minister must answer
Demonstration planned for 21 October
Residents of the informal settlements in Okahandja plan to march on the capital to address their pleas to the prime minister.
Residents of Okahandja’s settlements are planning another protest to Windhoek for better living conditions, service delivery and the development of their neighbourhoods.This time they will march to the office of Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.
Community activist, Sethy Gariseb, has evidence of their payment of N$450 for an escort by the Namibian police. His copy of the letter to the prime minister's office was also stamped as received.
The protest march will take place on Friday 21 October. The group will walk from the Riverside petrol station through the city centre to the Parliament Buildings.
“The illegal community of Okahandja, namely the Vergenoeg community and all the other illegal and nameless communities, hereby wish to inform your office of our planned march on 21 October 2022. The purpose of this march is to personally present a complaint to the office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Namibia. The expected turnout is between 150 and 200 protesters,” according to the letter.
In July, Gariseb travelled with a group by bus to the capital and to the office of the Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni.
Elderly people and children in the group knelt before Uutoni when he walked out of the ministry's main office.
Seventeen-year-old Emily Malwena read out their pleas. “Being called illegal is not what we want or need, but our circumstances force us to live the life we are in now.”
The residents of Okahandja’s settlements seek, among other things, ownership of the land they live on, the provision of sewage facilities and access to electricity.
Uutoni's promises that the Okahandja town council would intervene, have come to nought.
‘Nothing received’
“Last Wednesday, the office of the chief executive called me. When I got there they said they hadn’t received anything yet. This despite the fact that the minister said he would have sent the complaint a long time ago, which shows that he is not serious either,” Gariseb said.
He said the minister, the Okahandja town council and the municipality have let the residents down, and that the prime minister must provide answers.
“This time we will not leave without an answer,” he insisted.
However, Uutoni says he was in Okahandja last Monday and that the town’s municipality must provide services, but that residents must be better informed.
“I say they should meet with the communities and explain things. It is the lack of information that frustrates the community,” he said.
Okahandja’s mayor Issascar Katuuo said the town’s leadership met with Garisb, but that the community activist does not want to understand the necessary processes.
According to him, collaboration is progressing with students from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) who are voluntarily counting houses in the settlements and building up a database.
Furthermore, new applications were submitted to publish and proclaim Okahandja’s settlements in the Government Gazette, after previous applications had expired.
Katuuo said the town’s development budget for the current financial year has been reduced from N$8 million to just N$1.8 million, while a lack of legal agreements further hinders debt collection.
“We try, we don't sleep, but the people don't want to wait,” he said. “Going to Windhoek, to go to the minister, or to the prime minister, or even to the president, will not solve Okahandja’s problems. It is only through Okahandja's own people that solutions will be found,” he said. – [email protected]