Marythar Kambinda

KATIMA MULILO – The Independent Patriots for Change strongly condemned last week’s bulldozing of houses by Katima Mulilo Town Council, which obtained a court order for the removal of illegal occupants at Lwanyanda informal settlement.

During a media briefing on Monday, the IPC regional leaders said they were deeply horrified by scenes and reports of barbaric acts of the Namibian police demolishing and vandalising property and houses of Namibian citizens in Katima Mulilo on 8 September 2022.

IPC Zambezi chairperson Elvis Lizazi said the party has it on good authority that the Swapo councillors of the town’s local authority directed the police to embark on “this shameful and dehumanising mission” against the very residents who elected them.

“It was their hope that those elected would alleviate their daily struggles, among these being the provision of decent and humane housing. The councillors were in complete disregard of sound and wise counsel against such acts by the IPC councillor, Charles Musiyalike, who submitted a motion opposing such inhumane acts envisaged on the locations on 25 February 2021. None of the Swapo councillors supported nor opposed the motion to date,” said Lizazi.

He further demanded the town council render an unconditional public apology to the affected residents, as well as to compensate the affected victims of “these uncalled for acts as the most appropriate course of action in restoring the dignity of the affected citizens as enshrined in Chapter 3 in the Namibian Constitution and Article 95, the Promotion of the Welfare of the People.”

He further demanded for the charges levelled against the arrested residents of Lwanyanda be dropped with immediate effect.

Additionally, IPC stressed, “the shocking knee-jack actions and mindless inclination to demolish people’s livelihoods by the Swapo government has become too common, and it is a shameful demonstration of a system of administration falling apart”.

According to Lizazi, it is even more “despicable in a region like Zambezi where government has miserably failed to prioritise the region’s development – and has often chickened under the bed when Namibians living along hot points of the boundary with Botswana are frequently targeted, harassed and executed by a foreign army”.

Furthermore, he stressed that IPC is noting with a watchful eye the daily actions and results of the “failed Swapo administration because of lack of visionary and wise leadership, Namibians continue to be subjected to living in squalor, in which they are further harassed and brutalised by the same people sworn to protect them.”