Okahandja residents plead for intervention
‘Please provide services’
Residents of Okahandja’s informal settlements on Friday held a demonstration, pleading with the Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni, to step in.They raised money to rent a bus and obtained the police's permission to go to the ministry's office on Friday to air their grievances.
A grade 10 learner, 17-year-old Emily Malwena, read the petition.
She first read a short message on behalf of the children in the settlements: “We all need a place to feel at home. We live in an independent country, vote for our leaders and plead with them to find solutions. Yet we feel neglected. Being called illegal is not what we want or need, but our circumstances force us to live the life we are in now.”
Uutoni received the petition and said he would bring it to the attention of Okahandja’s mayor and leadership. However, he urged the group to first try to resolve issues locally, before calling on help from the central government.
Uutoni said he encourages town councils to meet with their communities and inform residents about challenges, budgets and planning.
The minister assured the protesters that he would contact the mayor and municipal council of Okahandja and ask that they meet with the town's residents soon.
Community activist Sethy Gariseb said last week that residents of Okahandja's informal settlements are tired of waiting for improvements in the town. “We submit complaints to the municipality, but they never respond. They just repeat the same story every time. Then they are replaced and the process just starts all over again. I grew up with the same story,” he said.
“It does not help whether the leaders are there or not; Okahandja remains the same. The minister must intervene and apply pressure that things start to change quickly,” Gariseb said.
In the petition, the residents ask for, amongst other, ownership of the land on which they live, the provision of sewerage facilities and access to electricity.