Nghaamwa in fencing fiasco

The governor of the Ohangwena Region, Usko Nghaamwa, has fenced off part of the road reserve in the busiest part of Ondangwa, accusing the town council of failing to protect his business.

Nghaamwa's Oshinanene complex is situated along Ondangwa's main road that leads to Oniipa and according to the council, his decision has endangered many people because his business is situated where many pedestrians and vehicles are active.

Nghaamwa said although his decision is coming under heavy criticism and is being labelled as tribalistic, the town council has failed for years to protect his complex from illegal street vendors and an illegal taxi terminal.

He said the situation got so bad he had to close some of his business operations.

“The illegal operations at my premises were killing my businesses. There was a filling station but I decided to close it down because customers had no access to it due to the illegal taxi terminal. My tenants are always complaining that there is no parking for their customers or their delivery vehicles. It was just a chaos and town council has not taken action despite the fact that I have made complaints,” Nghaamwa said.

“I was left with no other option but to protect my business. Now that I fenced off my complex there are some leaders of Ondangwa town saying that I fenced off the place because I am an Oshikwanyama speaking doing business in Ondonga. I am not happy with this.”

Nghaamwa said that when he was installing the palisade fence he was approached by the town council and Roads Authority (RA) officials, saying he was his actions were illegal as the fence is in the road reserve. He added they ordered him to stop while they were identifying his plot boundary.

“I stopped. However, they failed to identify were my plot ends so I proceeded because I must protect my business,” he said.

The Ondangwa town council's CEO Ismael Namgongo said they understand Nghaamwa's actions but added that he has placed many people in danger. He said they are engaging him to remove the fence because it is installed within the road reserve.

“It is true that it used to be chaos at that complex.

We are aware that it used to be a haven of illegal taxi operations and street vendors. Customers use to find it difficult to access shops at the complex. The owner of the complex however decided to fence his plot off without consulting us. We approached him together with RA and we engaged him in that he has occupied the road reserve space which may endanger residents,” Namgongo said.

“We are busy identifying his plot marks.

“The place was surveyed a long time ago and we need suitable equipment to identify the boundaries.”

On the tribal utterance, Namgongo said that is not aware of it and in Ondangwa they respect Nghaamwa as a pioneer of the local business community.

Nghaamwa said that once the town council commits to protect his business he will remove the fence.

“My tenants and I are not happy to be operating in a fenced off area. I only need town council to protect my premises then I will remove the fence. I also want to re-open my filling station once everything is back to normal,” he said.

ILENI NANDJATO