Rehoboth residents are ready to grab land on Monday after the town council failed to give feedback on their demands.
A town council meeting had been scheduled for today where the land grab was to be discussed, but the topic was apparently removed from the agenda and postponed to next week Tuesday.
This was confirmed to Namibian Sun by a representative of the Affirmative Repositioning movement in Rehoboth, who charged that the town council had failed the residents.
The new date for discussing the matter was set for after the planned land grab on Monday although the town council had promised to give feedback on the demands after discussing the urgent matter yesterday.
Earlier this month, a group calling themselves the ‘Rehoboth Landless Masses’ informed the town council about their intention to grab land on 2 May if the council did not respond to their demands by the end of this month.
Spearheaded by community activist Abraham Kaibib, the concerned group called in the assistance of the Affirmative Repositioning movement.
The group has demanded that 300 erven be made available to them and said that a further 1 500 applications for erven would be submitted to the Rehoboth Town Council.
The AR representative said the council lacked professionalism and integrity.
He said from an AR perspective they were deeply disappointed in the council and they had tried their best to resolve the matter.
The council’s failure to deal with the matter indicated that it was willing to let residents grab land although the line minister had implored people not to do so, he said.
He said AR could not give positive feedback on the matter to the residents and the only way a land grab could be stopped was if the minister intervened.
The acting CEO of Rehoboth, Jennifer Case, previously told Namibian Sun that they had received the group’s letter and the council’s management committee would first discuss it.
Following that a full council meeting was set for yesterday where a resolution would have been made.
After that, feedback would be given to the concerned group, said Case.
ELLANIE SMIT