Nuusita Ashipala
Ongwediva-The family of seven who were last week evicted from their home at Ondukutu village in Ondangwa said they now live in fear as at night there are cars frequenting the kindergarten where they are housed.
Taarah Nangolo, his wife Anna Josef, and their five children have since their eviction from their three-bedroom house relocated to a community kindergarten adjacent to their old house. The family now lives in a crowded room with some of their belongings in one room, while the rest of their things are stored in a separate room.
“We are living in fear because there are always cars coming here at night and sometimes lighting into the house and in the kindergarten where we now sleep. We are scared, because we do not know what they want,” lamented the wife.
The family was evicted by the headman’s nephew, Luther Natangwe Iimbili. Nangolo said he had been living at the plot since 2000 when his namesake and then village headman Taarah Iimbili gave him the plot. He said he had been living with his namesake, until he asked to be given a place of his own.
He said he left the plot vacant until he married in 2011 and only started constructing the house in 2015. He said the conflict between him and Iimbili started in 2013, when the headman died and has been ongoing until he was ordered to remove his belongings on June 29.
“At one point they also came here and instructed me not to put up a fence and to only occupy an area six-feet from my house, to which I objected,” Nangolo said.
In addition, he said the dispute had been heard by the traditional authority, and that he was declared subsequently the sole owner of the property, but he said his evictees went and challenged him at the High Court.
He added that he was served with a summons from the High Court in December 2015 to remove his belongings, but he lost the case in 2016. On June 29, Nangolo was served with another court order asking him to remove his property and to pay the lawyers’ cost of N$84,594.
Ondangwa Town Council in letters seen by New Era denied having authored any letters indicating that Iimbili was the registered owner of the plot in question.