Africa-Press – Namibia. TSUMEB mayor Mathew Hangula says although the town council has empathy with the families who have been left in the cold after being evicted from Endombo, the government and municipality should not be blamed.
Some 39 families were last Monday evicted from the property belonging to Cristof Groenewaldt of Rubicon Security after they allegedly failed to settle their agreed payments which allowed them to stay on the property.
Hangula says the council has allocated a piece of land on which the evicted people could settle, although it will be hard for them to be moved there immediately, since the area has not been serviced for occupation yet.
“We are moved by the plight of these people, however, people should not treat this matter as a government or council issue. These people were settled on private property and the owner of that property is the one doing the eviction.
“We are, however, trying to see how best we can assist our people, but due to financial constraints, it’s not immediately possible. Tsumeb is faced with land issues because of its rocky area, and to clear land, we need to blast the the rocks, but that could be risky and dangerous for our residents,” Hangula says.
He says the issue has been ongoing for years during which the land was occupied by former Tsumeb Corporation Limited (TCL) mineworkers.
“The occupants kept insisting that Groenewaldt did not own the settlement, hence their reluctance to pay rent and leave the property, but the Deeds Office is there to show he is the rightful property owner as it is registered in his name.
“How he acquired it, however, I cannot say. It is just the normal order of things that if someone brings you to their properties (sic) and there is an agreement that they pay a certain amount of rent, that the owner has the right to evict them if they break the agreement.
“So this eviction is purely between the property owner and the tenants,” he says.
Gorenewaldt says he has not had access to the property for the past five years because of the squabbles with the tenants, and the courts.
He has, however, managed to get a court order which allowed him to evict the tenants.
“This has been a ongoing situation for the last five years. The courts were involved. Even the politicians intervened on behalf of the tenants, but I was granted the go-ahead in 2020 to do what I want with my property, and that is how my decision to effect the eviction this time around was made,” Groenewaldt says.
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