Nearly a year has passed since the eviction of tenants of the Endobo compound in Tsumeb during a protracted ongoing legal battle. However, many of them are still grappling with homelessness and an uncertain future, as they refuse to acknowledge the ownership of the businessman who evicted them.

The evictees said they are yet to secure a place to call home, leaving them in a “state of despair and uncertainty”.

For more than five years, the conflict between the Endobo tenants and landlord Christoph Groenewald has been ongoing.

The tenants stopped paying rent in 2017, disputing Groenewald’s ownership of the property. However, in September 2022, the High Court ruled in favour of Groenewald, resulting in the eviction of the tenants.

The property was home to about 2 000 tenants, and 80% of these tenants have resorted to camping outside the compound in the bushes. Forty-nine households received plots from the Tsumeb municipality, while about 36 households still live on the property. This includes the committee members who refused to vacate the property and others who are up-to-date with their rental payments.

“I can say that the situation is dire for the majority of us. Many have been left in the dark and have nowhere to go after being evicted from our homes last year. Currently, we are forced to camp in the bushes close to the riverbed with no access to basic facilities like electricity and sanitation. It’s a tough situation,” explained one of the residents, Johannes Kamati.

He said the matter is not being handled with urgency by the authorities, and they are left to “suffer”. “Despite waiting on the municipality to look into the matter, they have been taking so long to provide us with assistance. Out of all the households affected, only 47 have received plots, while many are still homeless,” he said.

Endobo compound, once owned by Tsumeb Corporation Limited (TCL) for housing contract mineworkers, has a complex historical and political background.

After TCL’s liquidation in 1998, its assets were taken over by Ongopolo Mining and Processing Limited Company, where the current property owner, Groenewald, served as a property manager.

Despite their eviction, the group has not given up the fight and has sought condonation from the Supreme Court for the late filing of their appeal. On Thursday, the group approached the country’s apex court to appeal, and the matter has been postponed to 6 June this year. “The tenants have been evicted unlawfully – and this has put so many lives in a dilemma. We are still standing by the facts that Groenewald doesn’t own the property, and we are going to fight the eviction in court,” said Kamati.

He clarified that the dispute began when Groenewald tried to charge them a deposit of N$750 in addition to their rent amount. Kamati and the other long-term tenants felt this was unfair because they had been living on the property since 2002, and the deposit should only apply to new tenants.

The rental prices range from N$500 to N$1 500. Approached for a comment, Groenewald said the evictees’ dilemma and homelessness was brought upon by the “so-called” committee members who have misled them into not paying rent. “These are the same people who are still living on my property and refusing to vacate, and they are the ones who approached the Supreme Court for condonation.

“Despite being given ample time to appeal, they failed to do so. Now, when they appeared in court on Thursday, they came up with excuses, and the matter was postponed to June. It’s clear they are just trying to buy time and continue living on my property because they know they don’t have a case,” said Groenewald.

When asked about the municipality’s involvement in the eviction of the tenants, the town’s mayor, Matheus Hangula, questioned whether it was the municipality’s responsibility to intervene in cases of evictions from private properties.

He said the municipality decided to allocate the evictees a piece of land where they could permanently settle – and that so far, 49 households had been given plots.

However, he noted that some evictees had chosen to camp outside the compound, either because they refused to move to their new plots or because they were not evicted and joined those who were.

“There is a piece of land, called Extension 9, where all the evictees will be permanently relocated – and the servicing of the land will commence in the current financial year,” he added. - ashikololo@nepc.com.na