Windhoek
A group of persons living with disabilities limped on crutches and came in wheelchairs to access the office of the mayor of Windhoek where they handed over a petition listing their grievances they want addressed by the city council.
“They can kill us and bury us right here. We will not move,” said the group spokesperson Justina Ndjuluwa, a member of Tukondjeni Nomukumo. Pointing to several loaves of bread, water and blankets, she said they were determined to make a stand.
The group of 18, before the arrival of this reporter, had handed over a petition to mayor Muesee Kazapua, claiming the plot they have been allocated over the last 15 years – erf 2327 at Tweetheni informal settlement in Okuryangava – is not conducive to their circumstances.
Ndjuluwa claimed that at a meeting held last year in August the mayor had promised the issue would be finalised, but to date nothing has happened. “We feel discriminated against and oppressed based on our conditions and financial status, despite consensus agreed with the city on affordability. The Windhoek council, particularly the mayor, have showed us that they are unwilling and not prepared at all to assist us. Death and poverty are the same thing to us now, as we continue to suffer at the hands of the Windhoek Municipality,” said Ndjuluwa.
She said the group would camp in front of the mayor’s office until a decision to give them other land is made.
“If the city is unable to do that, let them go ahead and kill us as we are prepared to die if that is what it takes to own land in Windhoek,” she fumed.
Mayor Kazapua apparently personally received the letter from the aggrieved group and told them to go home, as land was already allocated to them.