Windhoek
The shining silver zinc rooftops of shacks have arrested the face of Windhoek as their numbers grow each day, especially in the north-western part of the city, with an estimated close to 100 000 people living in wood and zinc structures in Havana alone.
Not only are informal settlements moving further away from the city and expanding into the mountains, but city officials say occupants have found ways of erecting them under the cover of night and each morning there are new shacks where the previous day there were none. During a flight over the city the aerial view of the informal settlements showed a sea of shiny corrugated-iron dwellings, swelling far towards the west.
Most shack dwellers face challenges of not having basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation. According to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) deputy director for strategic communication Iipumbu Sakaria, 113 074 people are living in informal settlements in the capital. There are 325 858 people living in Windhoek. City of Windhoek acting chief executive officer (CEO) Fillemon Hambunda told New Era that residents who continue setting up illegal shacks have found a new method of erecting them – at night. “They catch us by surprise – these people have innovative ways of putting up shacks at night. This is something we don’t permit and we have control measures such as deploying security guards to alert us when someone is busy putting up a shack but sometimes they don’t see, as Windhoek is big,” Hambunda explained.
Hambunda said people prepare the roof and dig holes during the day but in the evening they put the shack together with a bed inside.
He explained that once someone has already occupied the shack the only way to get the person to vacate the land is through a court order.
Hambunda stated that if the shack is not occupied then they can stop the person and remove the illegal structure, but not once it has been erected and occupied. Hambunda further said they are trying their best to stop the mushrooming of shacks but going forward the best solution would be to formalize the areas where people have already settled. “We have a mandate to provide services – we can’t just shrug our shoulders. We need to work out a plan. What we are doing now is numbering the shacks and will later compare the data of those who have multiple land grabs,” remarked Hambunda. He added that what is scary is the additional costs to the city’s operational budget and the more the costs the more it will cost residents.
Windhoek mayor Muesee Kazapua noted that the way people squat has a negative impact on their health and diseases they need to prevent. “If things go wrong and people are affected by some of these challenges the blame will come to the city.”
Kazapua said that when people flock to the capital it looks as if the city does not have the capacity – it has, however it becomes a burden. Kazapua called upon the government through the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to start identifying a second town (capital city) to reduce the burden on Windhoek. He did a comparison with Nigeria that has two capital cities – Abuja and Lagos.
Kazapua also indicated that they refer and encourage investors who visit Windhoek to identify other towns with economic opportunities for investment.
“Once they go invest in those particular towns, at least they will create employment opportunities for the people and at least the people will not move to Windhoek.” The mayor further said that the land which is illegally occupied is earmarked for various projects such as residential, business or institutional – but people just grab the land.
When the City Police were asked what they are doing to control land grabs, City Police spokesperson Cillie Auala said they have community meetings and education programmes aimed at addressing the issue of illegal occupation of land.
Nevertheless, she said, it will always be difficult to control illegal occupation if the community itself is not involved in this effort.
“In most cases, illegal structures are erected and occupied during the night. Community members often observe these happenings but no one tends to alert the authorities. The best way to have full control over the situation is when we gain the involvement of the community in the effort to stop illegal occupation,” stated Auala.