Affected residents of Otjiwarongo's Single Quarters, who face mounting pressure from the Otjiwarongo Municipality to vacate their units as part of a decongestion plan, have taken to the streets of the town to air their dissatisfaction with the local authority's response to two previous petitions handed over this year.
Group spokesperson Irene Uushona says residents demand that the council look into writing off some N$1.5 million in debt owed by unit occupants.
Uushona says there is a backlog of four thousand applications for 400 plots at the newly identified Development Workshop location, which single-quarter residents are not ready to jostle for.
"The decongestion plan was born out of the idea to collect the N$1.5 million that those who are staying in the units in the single quarters owe. We are informed and our question is: what about the other N$54 million owed to Otjiwarongo Municipality by its residents? What plans exist to get those funds? Other councils have written about debts; why is this Otjiwarongo not taking such steps? If one looks back at the economic situation of the country."
Uushona said that as residents, they will remain defiant and not move to a proposed reception area due to a lack of basic amenities.
They would rather, they say, have the council sell them these units as initially promised.
Upon receiving the petition, Otjiwarongo Mayor Gottlieb Shivute had this to say: "Thank you very much for your petition. I remember in February, at the same time, you were here with your petition, and we have responded to that effect. You were given responses to that effect. And it's there with the chairperson of the group. And if some of you haven't acquainted yourself with the responses, please make sure you approach Madam Uushona. Yes, if there are any other developments that we did. It is addressed in the petitions that were forwarded to my office to definitely come back. I and my councillors will definitely sit around the table to address you and definitely give you responses to that effect, and if you are not happy with the responses, it's your liberty to approach the office of the Minister."
The council's plan is aimed at decongesting the unhygienic and overcrowded single-quarter units and relocating some residents to areas such as Saamstaan or Kamp Five locations, as per the council resolution of 2017.