The Katima Mulilo Town Council yesterday issued stern warnings to squatters who refuse to demolish illegal clay huts.
The council’s chief executive officer, Charles Nawa, told Namibian Sun that the illegal huts cannot be tolerated anymore as they are harming the town’s image.
Nawa said most of the huts are in the Dairy and Macaravan West and East informal settlements and the Cowboy settlement.
“There is a lot of illegal structures on the land of Katima. People are just building and they are building traditional houses in town,” he said.
He said the council was following the correct procedures to stay within the law. At this stage it did not need police assistance but it would not hesitate to get the police involved if the squatters did not demolish the structures voluntarily.
“We are following the procedures. What we are doing is to inform and educate our people on the consequences of staying in town without approval. That is the campaign we are busy doing right now,” he said.
“The people were informed a long time ago to remove those structures or else the council would remove them.”
Nawa said some people believed that the council was already demolishing huts but in fact it was the owners removing them voluntarily.
“When people see us doing the campaign, they think we are destroying them, it is just that other people are complying and removing their structures,” he said.
When contacted for comment yesterday, Zambezi Regional Governor Lawrence Sampofu said he knew nothing of the clearance campaign in Katima Mulilo.
A year ago, about 100 protesters demanded land in Katima Mulilo, which ended the group being dispersed by police using teargas.
KENYA KAMBOWE