OTJINENE - Although the mushrooming of illegal shacks remains one of the biggest obstacles at Otjinene, the town’s village council said it will address the issue in an
orderly and systematic way to avoid unnecessary public chaos.
While Otjinene has made and continues to make tremendous developmental strides, especially in the housing and infrastructure space, the bourgeoning of illegal shacks continues to obstruct proper town planning and hinders various development programmes.
As much as it is a thorny issue, the village council’s CEO Inge Kaveterua has assured the residents that the relocation of all illegal shacks will not be done in a hasty manner and nor will council infringe on the inhabitants’ rights during the planned relocation process.
“We have already done the markings on all illegal shacks that were constructed outside the approved planning boundaries of Otjinene, but it does not mean they will be forced to start moving to a new place very soon. We will do the relocation in an orderly and systematic way because there are many other things we need to do before starting with relocations,” said Kaveterua.
She said the goal is to ensure that all buildings and houses are constructed within the approved boundaries as that makes development easy.
Almost all shacks located on the outskirts of Otjinene, especially in the vicinity of Ozohambo, have been spray-marked with wording stating: “Please remove”, to alert and indicate to the various owners that they are illegally on council land.
New Era spoke to one of the inhabitants Johannes Tjiuana, whose shack like many, is also illegally constructed on council land, and he expressed optimism that the council’s leadership will address the issue with care and relocate them to a decent piece of land.
“We are not really that worried because we trust that the leadership will follow all processes and if need be, put us on another decent piece of land closer to town. We have school kids and most of us also work in the business district area, so whatever they decide to do with us in the future, they must consider those aspects,” said Tjiuana, a 47-year-old father of three.
Another resident Hilma
Kandorozu, a self-employed mother of five, said she will not have a problem moving to a new place when the time comes but equally requested that the council ensure that their children will not walk inhumane distances to school as that will put them in a compromising position.
“I have five children and four of those attend school, so the council should make sure they don’t place us kilometres away from town and expect our kids to walk kilos and kilos to attend school. That will not work with us and might even create problems between us and the council, but otherwise, we have no issue moving to a reasonable piece of land in the future,” she said.
- ohembapu@nepc.com.na