OKAHANDJA - A group of disgruntled residents from Okahandja’s informal settlements took to the streets on Friday to demand their petition back from the town’s mayor.

The residents want to submit it to the Head of State instead, following an apparent lack of interest from the town’s leadership in addressing their concerns.

Led by community activist Sethy Gariseb the residents chanted: “We want land! Down councillors!”, as they marched from the town’s informal settlements to the municipal building in the central business district, demanding the return of their petition. 

The petition had urged the municipality to address their plea for land and municipal services.

In the petition submitted to the municipality in July 2022 and to the minister of urban and rural development in March 2023, residents demanded the provision of water, electricity and all other basic municipal services in the informal settlements. 

The petition also calls for the relevant authorities to clarify who is entitled to own a piece of land, and who qualifies for municipal services.

“We are tired, and because they are not acknowledging the petition, we want to take our petition to the President... so that the President can see which avenues we have exhausted. The streets are dark, our children are being raped,” charged Gariseb.

Land grabbing continues unabated in the once eminent ‘Garden Town’, with many landless people occupying unserviced municipal land in the fast-growing illegal informal settlements, including Promised Land, Vergenoeg, Dom Lokasie, Oshetu, RCC camp, Five Rand, and Sweet Village.

Okahandja mayor Kaunapawa Fillemon handed back the petition to the demonstrators, and refused to comment on the matter.

“I am just here to hand over the petition... I don’t have anything to say,” she stated.

Anna Fredricks, a resident of Promised Land and one of the first settlers on the unserviced land on 28 June 2020, said she had been evicted by their former landlord due to non-payment of rent leading her to occupy the unserviced municipal land illegally.

“I had nowhere to go as a mother of four. So, my aunt and I decided to set up our caravan here, and we started living here. Since then, many landless people have found homes in Promised Land. People are calling us illegal since we don’t have erf numbers, so when are they planning to legalise our stay here?” she asked.

Gariseb said they plan handing over the petition to the Office of the President in two weeks’ time. -Nampa