Niël Terblanché
The allocation of houses to families who fell victim to the devastating Twaloloka fire disaster almost three years ago will now be investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The investigation by the corruption watchdog follows after a group of 21 beneficiaries of Twaloloka-Otweya houses were served with eviction notices by the Erongo Regional Governor, Neville Andre.
The group is claiming that lists of beneficiaries that were compiled in the wake of the disaster have been tampered with repeatedly by the various authorities that were involved with the rehousing of the victims.
The group in a letter signed by the heads of 21 beneficiary families has reported the matter to ACC and the Ombudsman for justice to be served.
The beneficiaries have been struggling with the issue since 2020 when the Walvis Bay Rural constituency councillor, Donatus Tegako expressed his dissatisfaction with the process.
At the time, the lists of names have been changed several times and threatened to derail the official handing-over ceremony in November 2020.
President Hage Geingob did eventually hand over some of the houses that the residents built with the help of the Build Together Project.
Tegako at the time blamed the ad hoc committee for changing the names on the list of beneficiaries.
“I don’t know what transpired in the meantime. What happened is some of the people that were left out approached the Legal Assistance Centre and from there they approached the ACC,” he said.
Tegako said that he had to deal with a lot of complaints from people whose names were not on the list and that there might have been some names that were added to the list illegally.
“We met with the Erongo Regional Governor and we also sat down with Erastus Uutoni , the Minister of Urban and Rural Development and since then 21 more names were added to the list,” Tegako said.
He added that at the moment nothing can be done about the matter before the ACC investigation is not completed.
Andre said that his office has also registered a case with the ACC about the matter.
“We also approached the ACC and handed over the documents needed to speed up the investigation,” Andre said.
The group of beneficiaries who received eviction notices and then approached the ACC and the Ombudsman for assistance asked in their letter why they received certificates for their houses.
“If they are now saying that houses were illegally allocated to us, the questions are, who was responsible for the allocation? Who verified the names? Why shouldn’t they halt the process then? Why should one allow and sanction a process that is not justifiable?” the group wrote in their letter.
The group stated that there was a Cabinet directive that ordered that 21 extra houses should be built for the victims of the Twaloloka disaster.
The group mentioned that Tegako was furious because of the changes made to the list of beneficiaries and that someone tampered with the Cabinet’s directive.
“Surprisingly the Governor and project manager acted recklessly, and negligently because during a meeting committee Andre indicated that certain names were removed and that he will stand for his statement under any circumstances,” the group said in their letter.
The group added that the Regional Governor has no reason or authority to change or replace legitimate beneficiaries with people of his political affiliation.
“Why does the Governor all of a sudden want to overturn his own deeds after having seen our letter of demand,” the group asked.
The group said they strongly believe that the Regional Governor and the project manager as well as some other role players must be held accountable for their corrupt actions.
“We don’t want to become victims again,” the group stated.
