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Zambezi council strips Nova occupants

2021-10-29  Staff Reporter

Zambezi council strips Nova occupants

Terence Mukasa

The Zambezi Regional Council collected tents from the occupants of the Nova community last week without notice or consideration for the homeless people of that community.

The Nova community is situated near the Nova Military Base, a few kilometres out of Katima Mulilo. The location is also home to homeless people who pleaded to the council for shelter, as they could not afford to erect temporary structures.

The removal of the tents by the regional council has left the residents with no choice but to resort to using plastic bags as shelter to prevent their scant belongings from being stolen or soaked by the rains.

According to the occupants, the council at first approached the residents to record the details of those who had zinc structures and did not communicate to those who had tents at that time.

“Later during the day, they came back and started removing the tents. They left my belongings in the sun and said no word to us why they are removing the tents,” said one of the occupants.

At the same time, another occupant told New Era that the regional council claimed they gave them the tents over a year ago and the tents are now damaged and burnt by the sun.

There are claims that the occupants were involved in the illegal sale of timber, tents and plots, which was then reported to the police by the council. The investigation only lasted for a week because it was declared as a sensitive case.

“The situation becomes hard every day because we are living with no direction, we do not know what we are going to do and most of the people have started building mud houses because of upcoming rains,” said another occupant. The ZRC spokesperson Damien Siyambango yesterday told New Era, “I don’t have a concrete reason why the tents are being collected.” Calls to the town council went unanswered.


2021-10-29  Staff Reporter

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