Okahandja eviction battle heats up

JEMIMA BEUKESWINDHOEKOkahandja land activist Johannes /Gerub Gaseb, imprisoned for ten days for illegal land occupation, is one of the community leaders gearing up to fight a High Court order authorising evictions from municipal land.This court order, which covers the Five Rand, Ekunde Proper, Eekunde Extension 5 and Veddersdal Extension informal settlements, was granted after the minister of urban and rural development filed an urgent application.Ironically, the court order follows Otjozondjupa governor James Unomasa Uerikua's promise that illegal settlers at Five Rand Camp in Okahandja would be granted title deeds under the flexible land tenure system. Gaseb, who speaks on behalf of the Promised Land Movement (PLARA) residents' association defending the rights of the landless and homeless in Okahandja, accused the government of trampling on its people.“The unscrupulously insensitive municipality of Okahandja has tuned up its warfare against the hapless and vulnerable Okahandja residents with what can only be described as probably the most draconian action ever to be meted out by a local authority against its residents,” he said.Evidence of corruption Gaseb, who says he is running for public office “to protect the community from corrupt officials”, said they have collected two boxes full of evidence of corrupt land deals by the Okahandja councillors, which has been submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). He added that their main aim is to deliver land through honest negotiations with the municipality and its council. “We have records that the town council employees have been selling the land. We have all the evidence. I went as a land owner and ratepayer and opened a case against these corrupt town council officials selling the land while there was a land moratorium in place. “We have submitted this evidence to the ACC and we gave them one week to give us feedback. If they are not going to investigate the council then you will see, next week Friday (11 September) we will be marching from Okahandja to ACC,” he said.Last month, Uerikua urged local landless settlers to submit applications for land to the Okahandja municipality, emphasising that this process would start with one general title deed being issued to settlers, and eventually plots would be demarcated and individual deeds issued. ACC director-general Paulus Noa confirmed that this matter was reported to his office.Case registered“We registered the complaint and we will contact him. It is now on the case management system and it is now up to us to allocate it to an investigator,” Noa said.The chief executive officer of the Okahandja municipality, Martha Mutilifa, referred queries to Linus Garoeb, the ministerial representative at the town.According to Garoeb, the eviction notice will in no way affect the flexible land tenure system.“These people who are most probably going to be evicted, maybe some of them have applied and will get their piece of land. We do not want political exploitation; we know it is election time and we want to assure people that the municipality is in the process to deliver land,” he said.jemima@namibiansun.com

Okahandja eviction battle heats up

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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Okahandja eviction battle heats up

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-12

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