Klazen pleads with landlords

The deputy minister of urban and rural development, Derek Klazen has pleaded with landlords to not evict tenants who are unable to pay rent due to job losses.Klazen, who made these remarks at the governor’s weekly Covid-19 media update here on Friday, emphasised that this is not the right time to evict people although they are unable to pay rent.“We are currently faced with the struggle of accommodating the Otweya, formerly known as Twaloloka, fire victims, therefore we strongly urge the community to assist the government in keeping a roof over the heads of others during this time,” he said.He commended the Walvis Bay and Swakopmund municipalities for their efforts to decongest informal settlements by relocating people, amongst others to empty Mass Housing properties.The Walvis Bay Municipality’s chief executive officer Muronga Haingura at the same event said that once earthworks have been completed on the availed block of land adjacent to the Otweya informal settlement, the municipality will commence with the demarcation of individual plots.“The Otweya settlement did not have spacing for the individual shacks and therefore we are going to avail more spacing of not less than 300 square metres per individual unit,” Haingura noted.He added that according to the municipality’s layout plan, close to 215 plots will be yielded from the area provided.Otweya had 240 shacks, of which 153 were destroyed by the massive fire on Sunday, leaving only 87 undamaged.Haingura noted that the municipality, after allocating plots to all affected residents, will still be able to address congestion amongst the 87 shacks which were not affected by the fire by spacing them out accordingly.“After the demarcation of the individual erven, infrastructure such as roads will be made available concurrently with the provision of water lines and ablution facilities.”The CEO further announced that the site and envisioned newly-designed structures are expected to be ready for occupation by mid-August.Additionally, Farm 37 some five kilometres south of Walvis Bay is also being prepared in order to address the problem of backyard shacks at the town. - Nampa

Klazen pleads with landlords

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Namibian Sun 2026-04-01

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Klazen pleads with landlords

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Namibian Sun 2026-04-01

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