Africa-Press – Namibia. INFORMAL residents, mostly from the DRC informal settlement and other informal settlements at Swakopmund, petitioned the Swakopmund municipal council yesterday to speed up the provision and servicing of land, as well as the provision of housing.
Many claim to have been on waiting lists for decades, like Annalize !Gaoses.
“I have the acceptance letter for my application for the first Build Together houses at Swakopmund. They gave it to me in 1994. But I am still waiting, and when I follow up, they say my name is not in the system,” she told The Namibian during the petition handover.
“I will, however, continue to hope.”
Petitioners’ representative Caroline Kasenda said the Namibian Constitution makes land and provision for land ownership a right for every Namibian citizen, and the government and local authorities are obliged to attend to this need.
They claim the municipality is ignoring their plight because as low-income earners, they “contribute peanuts” to the housing sector, while the municipality can earn much more from private developers and high earners.
They claim there are many entrepreneurs (many of them women) who sell vetkoek and put their children through tertiary education, while also taking care of the family at home. These people should not be excluded from opportunities to own land and houses just because their products and services appear less lucrative.
Yet, they argue they must vote for and believe in the promises of land and housing from candidate leaders.
“Otherwise, we are supposed to remain in shacks, and renting, while the new generation of the rich are able to afford better living conditions anywhere in Namibia. We must just keep being tourist attractions as poor people that live in boxes,” Kasenda said while reading from the petition.
The petitioners urged the municipality to make serviced land available to allow them to build houses, similar to the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia.
They are also urging the municipality to make loans more accessible to low-income earners.
Those living in shacks at the DRC, an informal area in the process of being formalised, claim the municipality is not keeping its promises to provide land and housing, instead, they are relocated to other areas to provide land to the highest bidders to be developed for huge profits.
The petitioners also question why the names of applicants for land and housing, recorded several years ago, are not on the system alongside the names of approximately 20 000 Swakopmund residents.
“Decent housing is a prerogative of any Namibian, and human dignity must be respected. The Swakopmund municipal council is breaking the law by breach of statutory duty, and is in contravention and contradiction of the Constitution of Namibia,” the petition read.
The petitioners demand that the municipality provides 400 to 800 serviced plots every five years to maintain control of the housing needs.
They gave the municipality until the end of next week to respond to their petition.
Municipality of Swakopmund chief executive officer Alfeus Benjamin received the petition and said the municipality is in the process of attending to residents’ needs.
“Most of the issues, if not all, are based on council decisions that have already been taken, and have been implemented already since last year. We will engage you on each of the issues that were raised.”
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