WINDHOEK – Nearly six months since they were evicted from their family house, the Ndukireepo family of seven remain hopeful they would get back the house they lost through a dubious auction three years ago.
“We want our house back. I am constantly running up and down to courts hoping to get back our house,” Emmanuel Ndukireepo said in the tent structure that has become home for nearly six months now.
The tent is outside house number 4956 Genesis Street, which has been his home for over 20 years.
An evidently distraught Ndukireepo said other than bracing the harsh weather, which they are daily subjected to, the family of seven’s meagre financial resources are hardly enough for their daily survival, let alone to get a place of their own should they fail to get back the house that they are fighting hard for.
“We are poverty-stricken,” says Ndukireepo, while puffing on a cigarette that he bought at a nearby kiosk in the business centre at the Katutura Single Quarters. He welcomed this journalist into the tent that speaks volumes about the family’s difficult circumstances.
“This situation is really affecting me and my family,” says one of Ndukireepo’s daughters, who chose to remain anonymous. She alleges her younger sibling was almost raped in the tent, saying their safety is compromised.
“People relieve themselves just close to the tent and there is nothing much we can do about that,” stated a dejected looking Ndukireepo.
The family was served with an eviction order on 26 March after they failed to prove the house was sold under questionable circumstances in October 2011.
The owner of the house, late Rudolf Ndukireepo – who died last February – was allegedly given excessive alcohol to consume and when he was drunk his sister and an accomplice coerced him into signing papers indicating he would sell the house for N$30 000.
This led to him and his family losing their house six months later. The family has been living in a tent since March. Katutura Central constituency councillor, Ambrosius Kandjii, provided the temporary shelter for the family when they were ordered to leave the house they have been fighting to get back after they got several eviction orders during the past three years.
Ndukireepo maintains he will fight to get back the house because it was sold under questionable circumstances.
He explained that the late Rudolf said numerously before his death that he was under the impression he was renting out one room for business purposes.
“I have papers here to prove that the house was not sold in a fair manner but the family does not have enough money to pay lawyers to continue with our case,” he says.