The lives of a family at Walvis Bay have been turned upside down since an incident during Easter in which their children were accused of shooting holes in the windows of an upmarket free-standing townhouse in the President’s View complex. The place is soon to be occupied by former President, Dr. Sam Nujoma. At present there is no evidence to implicate the children, but this is the third incident of its kind at President’s View. Dr. Nujoma is expected to move into the brand new townhouse soon and this prompted the developer to take extra safety precautions.

The developer of President’s View, well-known local businessman and close friend of Dr. Nujoma, Mr. José Luis Bastos, confirmed to Informanté this week that it was originally thought the shootings were politically motivated, but it turned out to be the work of naughty children with air propelled guns (BB guns).
President’s View is situated on Walvis Bay’s posh Kovambo Nujoma Avenue. The erf on which the development takes place was donated to Dr. Nujoma by the Municipality of Walvis Bay nearly a decade ago.
The incident, in which several children were implicated, sparked a criminal case for malicious damage to property. The Walvis Bay police arrived at their school only a few days after the incident demanding that the children be interrogated. When the police arrived to interrogate the children, the parents decided to involve their lawyer in the matter as the children were now traumatised and very scared.
Informanté launched an inquiry into the incident and found that the family involved lives very close to President’s View. Over the Easter weekend their children, along with friends and cousins, walked to the lagoon and also entered the construction area. A caretaker shouted at them to leave the area and when they walked home the man followed them insisting that they broke two windows.
One of the parents later confronted the children, but they denied that they broke any windows. The parents offered to pay for the damage if there is any proof that their children indeed were involved. The parents went as far as making an appointment with the developer Bastos, but this time the version of events allegedly took another turn. It was now alleged that the windows were broken after being shot at and the caretaker who started the furor changed his story and admitted he never saw the children breaking the windows, but “they were there and therefore it had to be them.”
The parents’ lawyer, Mr. Ugéne Thomas, confirmed the incident to Informanté this week and explained that he took the parents to the police officer tasked with the investigation. The officer was expected to ask the parents a number of questions and these questions were to be relayed to the children at home. The investigator had no questions and Thomas then felt the matter was put to rest.
During a telephone interview with Bastos this week he explained that it was not only President’s View that was vandalised with the air-propelled guns, but windows of many other houses in Meersig also bore similar signs of damage. That brought the developers to the realisation that there is no security risk, but additional precautionary arrangements were nevertheless made to ensure Dr. Nujoma’s safety.