He witnessed it first-hand. A group of about 100 people crowded two trucks offloading refuse at Eros Dumpsite to try and salvage food or items of value they could sell in order to buy food to eat.

The place within an eye-shot of Windhoek’s affluent Eros residential area has become a permanent home to several people modern society has rejected with all its glamour and opulence.

He and Top Score spent Saturday, 9 April 2022 at the dumpsite talking to the homeless people who live there and sharing pre-cooked meals with each of them. Each meal pack had two-pieces of chicken, a nice, thick scoop of porridge, butternut salad and Chef Coennie’s secret recipe soup.

It was all served with fruit juice.

They enjoyed it and had only gratitude for Top Score and the Chef, even though it might be days before they will have another decent meal.

For the first time since Chef Coennie took interest in the homeless people eking out a living from what is dumped at the Eros Dumpsite, he was able to bring Top Score and the media into the lives of a joyous bunch, who scavenge whatever they can from what we throw away.

He went into their makeshift sleeping places, saw their living conditions as journalists and Top Score officials took in the lows life can lead people to and the impact of Chef Coennie and Top Score’s philanthropy.

A majority of the people who live at the dumpsite have one common trait and that is their humility. Folks here do not blame anyone and are not concerned about the politics. They appear pre-occupied to take it one day at a time and find their next meal from the only source they know.

Most of the homeless people at the dumpsite are unaware of the Food Bank, President Hage Geingob’s major intervention to reduce food wastages and fight poverty by giving food to the vulnerable, or its successor program of transferring cash of N$ 500 each to vulnerable individuals. 

Top Score gives Coennie Muundjua the maize meal and money he needs to cook for vulnerable groups in society. Their partnership has taken Chef Coennie and Top Score to those in need or to others, who deserve appreciation including pensioners, orphans and people living with disabilities in places like Opuwo, Okakarara and in the capital, Windhoek.