More than 200 people found themselves homeless and on the streets of Windhoek on 1 April, after their houses in Khomasdal, a Coloured suburb, had been razed to the ground on the orders of Windhoek City Council. Khomasdal, an area of tin shanties and makeshift huts, was owned by a private landlord, Mr. W.F. Bruwer, who extracted rents totalling R3,000 per month from his tenants. The hovels lacked sanitation and drainage facilities, and hygenic conditions were appalling. 15 residents are known to have died of gastro-enteritis in January 1976 alone.
In 1975, more than a year before Khomasdal was finally demolished, Windhoek City Council gave notice that the houses would have to be evacuated. The decision, however, seems to have been prompted more by fear of a threat to law and order than by concern for the health and welfare of residents. Speaking in a Council meeting on 31 March 1976, Windhoek's Mayor said that "gambling, liquor abuse, and other related social disruptions were the order of the day in the community occupying those hovels". "He reminded the Council of social agitation. That place lent itself to such feelings". It should therefore be razed to the ground.
The question of alternative housing provision does not appear to have taken up much of the Council's time. In 1975, it was decided to build 202 houses, making them available at 100% loans to Khomasdal residents. The Council, however, required a deposit of R300, and by the beginning of April 1976, when 84 houses had been completed, only four people had been able to take advantage of the offer. The remainder of those evicted were expected to make their own arrangements. Despite angry protests from residents outside the offices of the Municipality, the Town Clerk, Mr. A.C. Arnold, refused even to provide tents for the homeless, on the grounds that this would merely re-create a slum situation.
