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Home / Threat to demolish backyard shacks irks residents
Threat to demolish backyard shacks irks residents
2014-11-14Staff Report 2 WINDHOEK - Residents of Nossobville in Gobabis are up in arms over municipal threats last week to demolish the shacks they erected in the backyards of their houses. The residents question how the municipality can force them to dismantle structures that they put up in the confines of their own homes while illegal informal settlements in the area continue to grow unabated. “These are our own erven. If they have to demolish anything, they must start with the squatter camps,” said Wallace Finnies, community activist and their legal advisor. Finnies related how a group of municipal staff arrived at Nossobville location looking for houses with outside rooms or shacks and demanding that the structures be broken down or bear the consequences. The municipality wants to see approved plans for the extra structures built in their yards. On Monday, he (Finnies) sent a request to the Gobabis CEO, Efraim Dawids, requesting an audience with him, but there was no response. Finnies also sent a letter to Swapo secretary-general, Nangoloh Mbumba, over the matter. Jakob Baardman, a resident of Nossobville said municipal staff approached him, telling him the storeroom he built with corrugated iron sheets behind his house must go. “It’s my house, my property; it doesn’t belong to the municipality. Now, they are telling me after all this time that if I want to build something in my yard, I must first apply for approval and pay N$50,” he said. Another resident, Josef Nathaniel, said he saw municipal officials in a car telling people to remove structures, if they did not get permission to build such structures. Attempts to reach the municipality proved futile at the time of going to print. By Magreth Nunuhe 2014-11-14Staff Report 2
