Lies #5 Amupanda opposed shack demolitions, but was unaware
Now we start to see how harmful lies can be.
What Job Said
In October 2017 One Africa reported that ‘The Affirmative Repositioning Movement has not taken {lightly] recent events that unfolded in Katima Mulilo where hundreds were left homeless after their shacks were demolishedl. Responding to CEO,Rafael Liswaniso's remarks that poor people do not deserve urban land,… Job Amupanda called Liswaniso an undomesticated motor mouth.’'
They evicted our people without a court order, they took the law into their own hands. we can;t understand the hypocrisy of a man like that saying, people must follow the law when he himself does not follow the law…
There is going to be land occupation, whether he wants or not.
But Job soon changed his tune after he was elected and seemingly forgot his earlier concern for the social-economic context and lot of the poor voters.
What Job Did
A must-read report by Shellegan Petersen and Tia-Zia //Garoës’ about the mid-winter demolitions: shines a light on the mayor’s character and policy, because after ‘'shacks belonging to more than 20 residents on a plot in Omuvapu Street at the Babylon informal settlement were demolished on 21 Jul 2021 by City contractors’, Job was nowhere to be found and later claimed ignorance.
“JOB was here campaigning for the elections. He knows. We have no other plans now that our shacks are demolished,” said one of residents whose shacks were demolished the previous day..
Amid the Covid crisis and the harsh winter, the reporters describe 'helpless mothers with children and young men who had been left in the cold watching as their shacks were destroyed by police officers.; The’land had been sold to a lawyer ‘who wants to bring services closer to the people, the City said.
One man who said he had suffered may misfortunes could be seen weeping for his daughter that would come from school to find they have no home at all: would she even find him if they evicted him from the area?
Nowhere to be found
‘Efforts to get comment from Amupanda were unsuccessful as calls and messages to him went unanswered. However, he tweeted yesterday evening: “I have taken note of the events in Tobias Hainyeko. I have asked the acting chief executive officer, George Mayumbelo, and the head of the City Police, chief Abraham Kanime, to brief me and councillors as to what has transpired.”
A young mother said “They [City Police] came here at 08h00 and started dismantling our shacks without talking to anyone. They just started evicting people,” she said. Paulina Nendonga who has been living at the plot since March said “I am angry. I have a child, and this is a problem… I don’t know what I am going to do. It is not right.”
Mayor won’t come out
Some of the families whose homes were demolished on Wednesday, on Thursday afternoon, camped in front of City of Windhoek Headquarters the papers reported on 22 July. They told Windhoek Observer that they have sent numerous letters to the City’s Mayor and have not received any responses yet.
He did not even come out to meet them.
Marthina Mutanga of Informante reported the next day that ‘Roughly 150 residents’, including ‘families with their children and the elderly will spend their second night in the hilly mountains of a western township with plastic sheets as their last defence against the expected big freeze after their shacks were yesterday demolished by City… left homeless after 38 shacks were demolished at the Mukwanangobe informal settlement in Windhoek are 15 women and 18 children, including babies.’
We were unaware
At his press conference in response to the papers the following day, the mayor avoided taking personal responsibility and called it “a collective failure” so as to share the blame more widely and spread it thin. He was also not aware of what was happening in the City.
He claimed that he, the deputy mayor and management committee chairperson were “not aware” of the ongoing demolitions, as if to shield oneself from responsibility by claiming to be highly incompetent. Yet he had tweeted on the day of the demolitions that he had “taken note of events...”
Job promised he would take necessary measures to avoid demolitions taking place without his knowledge again. “I would like to tell masses to refrain from grabbing land and give us time … we will get back to you,” his deputy pleaded:
A month later on 13 August 2021 NBC’s Emil Seibeb reported that the shack demolitions were ongoing, leaving some highly vulnerable adults and children out in the mid-winter cold. There were also reports of women and children arrested over the so-called “ illegal occupations". Was the mayor still unaware?
Given the measures he said he would take to ensure he is kept informed of such things, and the widespread reporting on it, could the mayor still have been unaware of the ongoing demolitions in the City, a month after his July press conference?
Therefore, we must conclude that he both knew of and condoned the demolitions, despite having pretended to support extra-legal land occupations by the poor, as in Katima Mulilo above. Once in office he endorsed policies that favored the rich and destroyed the few belongings and humble shelter of the poorest of the poor amid a winter pandemic. They were being punished for being poor, and he knew it.
Therefore we must conclude that he was not truthful in his support for land occupations and his opposition to shack demolitions without a court order, as he argued before he was elected, when he endorsed and presided over the same.