Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) president Dr Panduleni Itula has said his party leadership will have an urgent meeting to decide whether to remain in the Windhoek Municipal Council, as the party is unhappy about the demolition of shacks.

Itula made these remarks on Thursday in an interview with Nampa at the Babylon informal settlement while assessing the situation where more than five shacks were demolished this week, leaving about 20 people homeless.

On Wednesday, members of the Namibian Police Force and Windhoek City Police accompanied contractors which demolished shacks that were allegedly illegal erected in Babylon. The contractors were allegedly contracted by the City of Windhoek municipal council, which is under the political leadership of a coalition of various political parties.

IPC has three members in the council management committee, one of whom is chairperson of the committee.

Itula said humanity is one of the best things someone can advance in whatever they want to achieve and the demolishing of shelter does not align with such principles. He said the IPC leadership will meet with the council to find out what exactly transpired and will then decide whether it wants to be part of a system that disregards humanity and people’s rights.

“We cannot treat our own people like that, we cannot go back to the dark days of apartheid where people’s houses were demolished as if they have no citizenship at all,” said Itula.

He added that any leader who “seeks to eat ahead of the people he or she is serving” is not a leader. Those who took the decision to demolish the shacks have to explain how they arrives at such a decision, he added.

“We will establish the facts that lead to this decision, whether there was a resolution in the city council that led to the demolition, and whether they took in consideration the consequences of the demolition of properties in terms of human suffering and the impact it may have psychologically,” stated Itula.

Approached for comment, Windhoek Mayor Job Amupanda said council was not aware of the demolition and directed the legal department to provide a report on what led to the demolition. He said the council will host a meeting on 05 August to address land issues, which will include the decongestion of informal settlements.

Source: Namibia Press Agency