By Elezo Libanda
Katima Mulilo, Oct. 25 – Residents of the Lwanyanda compound are still stranded next to the roads near the place they once called home.
This is after their homes were demolished by the Katima Mulilo town council and Kayuni investment to evict the residents they accused of grabbing the land.
The residents had refused to leave the area despite being served with an eviction order by deputy sheriff Vernon Lutibezi.
The demolition resulted in hundreds of the former Lwanyanda compound residents becoming homeless and claiming that they had not been informed of the eviction order nor the consequences of ignoring the court order.
Although a month and some days have passed after the demolition, there has been no solution to help these evictees.
A total of 80 families have still camped in the open opposite the place they once called home.
NDN spoke to a Lwanyanda evictee who identified himself only as Fannie and who sleeps in the open with other families.
“We did not refuse to move, we have been here because we have nowhere else to go, we have been applying for plots and have been on the waiting list for a long time, but some people have more than 5-10 plots in their names.
I have children attending school in town. The demolishing happened in September, around the middle of the year. Do they want our children to leave school?” he asked.
He said they did not refuse to go to Nova. “Let them open their books to see who owns plots at Nova, it’s only a few lucky ones. We are struggling here as we don’t have even water, we rely on a well we have used before our houses were demolished, the water is not fit for human consumption but we have no choice.”
He said they had been told earlier to go return to their villages but they have temporary jobs here to sustain their families, some are even permanently employed.
He said people had set up homes in Lwanyanda because renting for life is not easy.
“We appeal to the central government to help us. We are citizens of Namibia, they must not treat us like foreigners,” Fannie added.
