In a matter that smacks of gross injustice, a Katutura-based motor mechanic is now paying rent to a recently awarded landlord, for a plot that he has been occupying for almost 20 years – despite having unsuccessfully applied for a lease agreement for the same piece of land from the City of Windhoek. 
Ironically, the municipality eventually allocated the land to another man. As a result, Mervin Janee Tjizu, who has been on the City’s waiting list for land acquisition since 2005, is now paying rent for the same plot to a new landlord, raising speculation of alleged nepotism on the side of the municipality. 
Tjizu told Confidente this week that before the plot adjacent to Erf RE/8457 along Shanghai Street was awarded to the current ‘owner’, he has written to the municipality on numerous occasions to apply for the land on a leasehold agreement, However, the City cited that the spot is reserved for future road development and cannot be leased.
Worse still, the new owner only fenced the place off, but is yet to launch any form of business operation on the ground. 
“I was told that I cannot be given that plot because it is located on a place zoned for other purposes. But if that was the case, how then was the same spot allocated to the person who is now my landlord?” Tjizu queried.
“In fact, the whole situation sounds awry.

I was told that the plot was awarded to my current landlord. Why then are there no services such as water, electricity and sewerage lines erected on the plot? Is that not what the City does upon giving anybody permission to occupy?” he asked. 
He further revealed that at some point the City informed him to identify another plot and when he requested for the one opposite his current location, he was turned down.

ERVEN ‘MIX-UP’
City of Windhoek Spokesperson Lydia Amutenya confirmed that the municipality is aware of the matter involving Tjizu and Erf Re/8457 and refuted any suggestion of bias, sabotage, or unfair treatment. She stressed that all applications are subject to internal assessments and ultimately, resolved by Council. 
Despite Tjizu’s assertion that he has applied for the land for which he is currently paying rent amounting to N$2,600 per month, Amutenya maintained that the plot allocated to Thomas Nangolo is situated on a road reserve adjacent to Erf RE/8457, while the portion requested by Tjizu, in 2013, relates to Erf 8459, which is zoned as Public Open Space (POS). 
These, according to Amutenya, are two separate plots with different zoning conditions, hence the rational for treating the respective applications differently lies in the underlying zoning classification. 
Said Amutenya; “The City is aware of the matter. Mr. Tjizu’s application was considered and formed part of a Council submission. The matter was resolved via Council Resolution 243/10/2015, which did not support his application.”
On why Tjizu was not considered for the plot of his choice, Amutenya indicated that he submitted multiple applications under different names for different portions of land in the vicinity,’ and that the Council resolution not to support him was based on various factors, ‘including land use designation and availability.’
In his response, Tjizu denied claims that he has been applying for plot to Erf 8459, but ‘a plot adjacent to Erf R8457,’ as contained in his letters. 
“They are not being truthful. I have been applying for the plot stated in my papers and I have replies from them stating that it is ‘a plot adjacent to Erf R8457,’” he said.  

CORRESPONDENCE 
Correspondences seen by this newspaper between Tjizu and the City reveal that he initially applied for the land piece in question since 2013. 
On 10 June 2020, in a letter titled; “Grievance on the manner in which my land application is being handled”, Tjizu stressed that his idea has always been to obtain a piece of land in the form of a lease with an option to buy. 
“Needless to say that, all my endeavours have met resistance from the side of the municipality, with replies that sounded flimsy at best,” the letter reads, while pleading with the City’s Property Office of City to revisit his case. 
It has further emerged from the letters between 26 March 2021 and 19 May 2021 that Tjizuu further sought the intervention of then mayor of the City of Windhoek, Job Amupanda.
“I eventually discovered that the plot that I was applying for is located on a road reserve – a zone through which the future Berg Street will run. This according to records at the City’s urban planning division,” Tjizu informed Amupanda.
Tjizu queried why his application has been overlooked for over 15 years, while he has been operating on the very plot and further demanded to hear the rational that was used to allocate the plot to the another person while it is earmarked for a road reserve.
“Finally, I would like to know why your office failed to motivate my application for a plot, which is located across Shanghai Street, from the land I have been applying, and which is actually under the same conditions?” he queried. 
The entrepreneur maintained that he is now of the opinion that his applications “has been deliberately overlooked or sabotaged in order for the land to be allotted to another person.” He made this claim in a letter dated 26 July 2021.  
Efforts to reach Nangolo via telephone proved futile, as he is said to have changed his numbers.