Struggle kids threaten return to WindhoekThe protesters staying at a Swapo plot north of Windhoek say they plan to return to the party headquarters in the city before the end of the week because they are being ignored. Mourn highway death of fellow protester The struggle kids are mourning the loss of one of their group members who was run over on the B1 road outside Windhoek last week Friday. Tomas Kondjeni, 31, was run over while crossing the road and will be buried in northern Namibia today.
The group say they have plans to march back to the Swapo headquarters in the city, but are not doing so out of respect for their recently deceased comrade.
“Kondjeni does not have a father or a mother, and therefore the MVA Fund refuses to assist in burying him and getting him back to the North. We plead with them, but no one is responding, and all of this just because he is an orphan,” group spokesperson, Jerry Hamukwaya claimed yesterday.
The struggle kids also blamed Swapo for not helping with Kondjeni’s burial.
“Swapo could have made one call and have had MVA provide a dignified funeral for our brother. We are not alright with the kind of treatment, even in death,” said another group spokesperson, Frans Otto.
According to the group’s representatives, Kondjeni’s uncles and aunts put together money to transport his body to the village for burial.
“We don’t really know all the details, but one of the guys here are talking to the family members and they said that they are tired of waiting for government to do something. They are scared he will rot in the mortuary so they are taking their brother and sister’s child to go bury him,” Hamukwaya said.
They said after the funeral they plan on heading back to the Swapo headquarters in Windhoek before the end of the week to hear what has happened to the promises made to them in June by Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.
“After our brother is laid to rest, we are going to be mobilising and sending a team to the Swapo headquarters to hear when they are going to give us the jobs that the prime minister promised us when she met with our representatives some months ago,” Otto said.
Hamukwaya said a month has passed since Swapo lawyer Dirk Conradie served them with an eviction order on behalf of Kalahari Holdings, who owns the Brakwater plot where they are staying.
The group then promised Conradie that they would no longer block public roads and be a “public nuisance” if they were allowed to stay at the plot.
“We have been calm and quiet because we were told to be. Now we have waited a month and still nothing has happened, and not even Conradie has reverted back to us about the demands that we made, and the promises he made to us with his own mouth,” Hamukwaya said.
“Nothing has happened since that meeting, or our meeting with Conradie. Swapo cannot even provide transport for us to go and bury Kondjeni, yet they said they would and have not since reverted back to us. There are a lot of empty promises that are just not being dealt with, and we can only take so much silence,” said Hamukwaya.
KEITH VRIES