Staff Reporter
A nationwide protest against home repossessions, led by August Maletzky, an activist for various causes, fell flat with only a few showing up.
Embarrassingly, and in an overreaction, the banking fraternity last night alerted thousands of their clients, assuring their safety against the seven protestors who supported Maletzky.
The protestors, at their highest numbers numbering no more than 20, marched from the B1 City service station opposite Katutura Hospital and made their way through Independence Avenue, handing in their petition to several commercial banks such as FNB Namibia, Bank Windhoek, Standard Bank, as well as the Bank of Namibia. They ended their march at Parliament. However, the petitions were not received by any person of authority from the institutions. A general worker from parliament received the petition to hand over to the Secretary of the National Assembly, while the petitions were given to security guards stationed at the front desks of the commercial banks.
Maletzky, who led the protest against commercial banks as the chairperson of the National Ownership Association, is no stranger to the limelight. In April 2023, Maletzky illegally sold a house in which he had been renting for N$2.5 million. In an order granted in the Windhoek High Court, Judge Boas Usiku declared a power of attorney that was used to sell the Windhoek West house of an 84-year-old Angolan national, Samuel Dias, as null and void. Maletzky was also ordered to pay his former landlord’s legal fees in the matter after losing the case.
In today’s petition, Maletzky is demanding that an Independent Commission of Inquiry by Parliament investigates the extent to which banks and their legal representatives unduly enriched themselves at the expense of their victims’ constitutional rights.
Additionally, he demands criminal proceedings against banks and their attorneys for debiting defaulting mortgage bond holders’ accounts with untaxed legal fees, as well as the cessation of all home repossessions pending investigations into home repossessions.
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