WINDHOEK – Windhoek High Court temporarily set aside settlement agreement that would have seen a 68-year-old woman evicted from a house that has been her home for 26 years.
The settlement came after her husband who is also married to other women denied the legality of their marriage. The husband, Herman Konrad who got estranged with second wife Ndapanda Shanika in 2013 says the house belongs to his first wife and their children.
According to the settlement agreement dated July 24, 2018, the second wife Shanika was to vacate their matrimonial home in Shandumbala, in Katutura by August 31, 2018.
The court ordered Konrad and his first wife Hilde Shipanga to pay Shanika N$2000 on or before August 31 this month.
Furthermore, Shanika would receive N$1000 for the next 24 months with the last payment ending on September 2020.
Konrad has three wives, he got married to Shipanga in 1981, married Shanika in 1992 and has a third wife (name unknown) in the north since 1995.
The High Court gave Shanika’s new lawyer Loini Shikalepo until October 19 to bring forth an application to set aside the settlement. This was after Shanika informed the court that she was coerced to sign the settlement. She also terminated her previous legal representative mandate.
The woman informed the court that she was legally married to Konrad and has marriage certificate.
“I didn’t know he was married. Why did he marry me and deny that he was ever married,” remarked Shanika who suffers from chronic heart disease.
However, Konrad stated that when he married Shanika, he was not in the right state of mind. In addition, he said he was made to sign documents that he did not understand as he cannot read and was ill at the time. “I was carried into church and I don’t know where I was,” Konrad told New Era insisting his first wife is still alive and well.
Konrad added Shanika should vacate as the house belongs to his children and not her.
Shanika and Konrad do not have children.
Konrad claims he did not abandon his matrimonial home but Shanika chased him out and went as far as applying for a protection order.
In the meantime, nine of the ten rooms in the house are being rented out to tenants who are paying N$1200 per month per room to Konrad. This angers Shanika who occupies a single room in her matrimonial home and does not get a cent from the rent. The elderly Shanika says she has nowhere to go following the eviction.