By:Annakleta Haikera
60-year old pensioner Dumingos Kativa, living at Kaisosi 1 settlenent in the town of Rundu, Kavango East region, on Tuesday was filled with dismay after officials of the Town Council allegedly demolished his garden from which he earns a living to pay for his children and grandchildren’s school fees.
Kativa’s garden crop, which is next to the Kaisosi sewage ponds, hadvegetables like maize, pumpkins, tomatoes and cabbages planted.
The senior citizen said he was not around when the Rundu Town Council crew arrived with a bulldozer to destroy the garden.
“I went to plough with my wife and when we returned home, my children told me all my crops in my garden were destroyed by a truck. I could not save my crops because I was absent when they destroyed the garden. I was then informed that among the people that came to destroy my crops is my neighbour who works for the Special Reserve Force,” he told The Villager.
According to the sexagenarian, he is not the only one doing gardening near the town’spond.
“There are six people there. The same thing happened last year and I was told they will refund what they have destroyed but it never happened. This is the third time my crops have been destroyed. I had my garden fenced in two years ago and officialsfrom the same Council came to remove my fence.”
“My crops were fully grown and ready for harvesting. I now don’t know who is going to feed me and my family,” he lamented.
The garden, he says, fed his family of 15.
Both Kativa and his wife are unemployed.
“I moved there three years ago after my wife Salem’s irrigation project was too small for all the crops we wanted to grow.”
Kativa also expressed disappointment that the Town Council failed to give him ample time to remove his crops.
“Now, I cannot sell this to earn a living because everything has been destroyed.”
Meanwhile, the Headwoman of Kaisosi, Anna Kanyanga, confirmed the incidence, saying that, “these people fight very hard to get seeds for gardening and then someone can just come and destroy it in the blink of an eye.”
Reached for comment,the Mayor of Rundu Gabriel Kanyanga said he was on his way to Windhoek and the matter is being handled by the Chairperson of the Town Council, Engelbert Muyenga.
Muyenga told The Villager: “It’s with deep regret that the Council was not aware of the demolishing [of the garden] and only got to know about it after it was posted on Eagle FM’s Facebook page. We didn’t inform anyone from the Town Council to perform such activities, thus we will have a Council meeting when the Mayor returns from Windhoek to see how we can compensate the affected family.”
He also said the Council visited Kativa’s garden to appraise itself of all the damages done.
“We are all deeply disappointed by the action. We want to inform the family that we are working very hard to resolve was has already been done by some of our employees.”
More than six residents in the Kaisosi area have their gardening projects situated nearby the sewage pond. Three years ago, the Town Council razed all gardens that were situated at the pond because, they claimed,weresetup without the approval of the local authority.
By law, no gardening project should take place within a 500-metre radius of a sewage pond, a clause which complicates the matter for the vulnerable.