Broken promises

Fed up with Oshakati Town Council''s failure to provide basic services, residents of the Pohamba informal settlement held a peaceful demonstration to express their displeasure.In their petition addressed to the mayor, Katrina Shimbulu, the residents complained about council''s failure to provide water, electricity and numbering their erven saying they have been waiting for the past 17 years.According to the petition, which was read out by the group''s spokesperson, Paulina Kanghondi, some of the residents residing at the informal settlement were relocated from Uupindi area in 2006 by council while the rest have been living at the settlement for over 17 years now.“Since we have been taken from Uupindi, we have not been treated well. We have been writing letters repeatedly, but we never got any response, thus we have decided to hold a demonstration,” Kanghondi read.“Our town councillor has promised us abundant benefits such as electricity, erf numbers and water, but to date, we have not benefited anything from those promises,” she further read. Kanghondi said that since 2014, the residents have been visiting the council''s offices to have their issues addressed but nothing has been done to date.“We don''t know if they keep our letters for further investigation or tear them up. We are tired,” Kanghondi said.She also pointed out that with the lack of basic services such as electricity in their area has exposed residents to criminal activities such as murder, robberies and break-ins saying council must act to solve these challenges.“We escort our children to the road at 05:00 due to darkness so they can go to schools that are far from our location and for that reason, we get to work late,” Kanghondi said. At the end of the petition, the group accused Shimbulu of not living up to her promise after she allegedly informed residents on 13 August that residents living in informal settlements will receive free electricity from Oshakati Premier Electric (OPE) and that residents were required to register with the service provider.The agreement between OPE and council is that OPE will direct half of its dividends for two years to council which amounts to N$7 million in order to connect electricity to 1 120 houses, for free.The council recently clarified who qualifies for the initiative. According to the qualifying criteria, only residents who do not owe the municipality any money will have free electricity boxes installed in their homes.The residents claim that people who applied for the free electricity facility from OPE were disqualified because there shacks do not have erf numbers.Oshakati Town Council CEO, Werner Iita accepted the petition on behalf of Shimbulu who is out of town. He promised the protesters that he will make sure that the letter reaches Shimbulu.KENYA KAMBOWE

Broken promises

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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Broken promises

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Namibian Sun 2025-11-04

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