There used to be a mini-suburb of Windhoek, intriguingly surrounded by the Southern Industrial area, which resembled a rural Namibian town, with simple but perfectly sound houses, and gravel roads, shaded by huge gum trees, inhabited by local people - just a couple of streets off the main thoroughfare of Lazarett St. It was like an intriguing time warp. In April I passed by to take a few pictures (see above). Now, just a couple of weeks before the 'festive' seaon, I passed by again And was greeted by a forlorn sight - the houses had all been demolished, or left as empty shells, the people of course evicted and gone.
This land is owned by the Municipality who gave the excuse that the houses on it were 'substandard', not worth maintaining, and were going to be sold for 'resticted' business purposes. Let me guess - the sale will be 'restricted' to Mr. H. Pupkewitz, whose enterprises occupy the surrounding area. Mr Pupkewitz recently celebrated his 90th birthday, which simply means that he has been robbing Namibians for the past 60 years now. His latest exploit, achieved with a few well-placed bribes, was to induce the Goverment to forbid the direct import of good affordable used Japanese vehicles, so that consumers will continue to have to pay the inflated prices in his 'official' Nissan and Toyota dealerships.
So the little suburb by this time next year (the houses and trees all gone) will become the latest Toyota showroom, to match his new Nissan one next door. Something we desperately need.
Anyway, a merry sun-drenched Christmas to all our readers.