Africa-Press – Namibia. CITY of Windhoek mayor Job Amupanda has locked horns with urban and rural development minister Erastus Uutoni over the proposed upgrade of the Monte Christo Road by a private property developer.
Ongos Valley Development — a private company constructing a housing project on the outskirts of Windhoek wants the government to fund a dual carriageway that leads to its site.
Amupanda is reluctant to support the proposed road upgrade, citing that government appears to be favouring the private property developer. The City of Windhoek will have to give its consent for the project to go ahead while Uutoni is insisting that there is nothing sinister about the government’s involvement.
Monte Christo Road stretches from the Van Eck power station in the Northern Industrial Area all the way through the Havana informal settlement. The Ongos Valley Development’s site is located behind the Havana informal settlement, which is home to more than 50 000 shacks, on the outskirts of the capital. The new development aims to host an estimated 4 500 housing units in its first phase, at a cost of N$4,3 billion. The project aims to build 28 000 housing units over the next 20 years.
An upgraded Monte Christo Road would support the increasing traffic needs to avoid clogging. The road upgrade will also serve as a selling point to attract would-be customers, who might be put off by the already congested stretch of road, especially the section from the Monte Christo and Otjomuise junction through Havana to Ongos.
The Namibian has seen Amupanda’s letter to Uutoni dated 19 August, in which the Windhoek mayor told the minister to be cautious in his approach in order to avoid possible corruption.
“All such projects are ordinarily dealt with at the operational level and as a matter of caution and in tandem with principles of good governance. I avoid a situation in which the political leadership gets involved in operational matters in a manner that results in real or perceived favouritism and corruption,” he said.
Amupanda was responding to Uutoni’s letter dated the same day, in which the minister instructed him to work with the private developers to pave the way for the road upgrade.
“The City of Windhoek (should) engage Ongos Development possibly the week (16 to 20 August 2021) to review the project blueprint and come up with a clear proposal as to the financing model,” Uutoni said in the letter. Uutoni added that the ministry urges the City of Windhoek that representation includes leadership at the main stakeholders’ engagement.
Amupanda told The Namibian yesterday that the City of Windhoek will not be brought into anything that it has not agreed to. He added that as an elected leader, the council does not run the city on anyone’s instructions and whims.
“We are subject only to the Constitution and the relevant national laws. No one will put pressure on us to do things we don’t want to do,” he said. Amupanda did not attend the stakeholders’ meeting despite the minister instructing the whole council to be present.
“I am aware of several meetings on the subject matter. Since I was not in those meetings, the officials briefed me last week on those general discussions,” he said.
He added that none of the councillors took part in the meetings. He said the meetings which took place on that matter were between ministers of finance, economic planning as well as urban and rural development and City of Windhoek officials.
Amupanda said at an appropriate time the council will meet with all developers for an update on their activities. He urged the developers to be honest in their business dealings.
“All developers will be treated equally regardless of who is writing recommendation letters for them. Developers must deliver housing, and for that, we will support them, but they must stay out of politics,” he said.
Uutoni yesterday said there is no political pressure being put on the City of Windhoek. He said the Ongos Valley Development approached his ministry regarding a project that would reduce the backlog of housing units in Windhoek.
“We told them to engage the owners of the road (City of Windhoek). We then asked the developer and the owner of the road to come up with a proposal and engage us (ministry),” said Uutoni.
The minister said this is part of the public-private partnership ideology that can help solve Namibia’s housing crisis. Since this project was not budgeted for by his ministry, Uutoni said he will rope in the finance ministry and ministry of economic planning to discuss how they can fund the project.
“In Namibia, people prefer accusations instead of real work. If the mind from all parties is positive, then we can propose a way to fund this project,” he said. ONGOS REQUEST
In a letter dated 10 September 2020, Ongos Valley Development director Americo de Almeida told the then City of Windhoek CEO, Robert Kahimise, that the company wants to collaborate with his office to upgrade the Monte Christo Road.
At the time, De Almeida said although the City of Windhoek is not expected to fork out any funds, Ongos Valley will aim to recover the costs from government and donor agencies.
De Almeida yesterday said his company is funding the project at the moment but hoping to recoup some of the money from the City of Windhoek. “Look, we are negotiating that still. We are standing in to raise the funding on behalf of the city but we are now hoping that they will refinance some of it,” he said.
He did not answer when asked how much the project will cost. “I can’t talk about how much it costs because there are still a lot of modalities that are not finalised with the financier,” he said.
Ongos Valley Development spokesperson Abed Erastus added that these engagements are complex in nature and require robust debate and consultations in order to get to effective and sustainable solutions.
