Africa-Press – Namibia. NEW Era Investments has been tasked with finishing the construction of 319 half-built mass houses at Swakopmund within the next six to 18 months.
The unfinished houses were handed over for completion at Swakopmund on Tuesday.
This follows a series of visits by government executives this year to Swakopmund’s mass housing sites, where hundreds of houses have been left in various states of construction for years due to court battles involving previous contractors.
The site consists of foundations, half built houses and finished (but dilapidated and vandalised) houses, which is situated right next to the DRC informal settlement.
Minister of urban and rural development Erastus Uutoni said the 319 houses handed over at Swakopmund are part of 891 uncompleted houses across Namibia constructed under the national mass housing development programme, and are yet to be completed and allocated for occupation.
Since the inception of the programme in 2014, 1 837 houses were planned for Swakopmund, with 1 332 having been completed and handed over to beneficiaries since then. The remaining 505 are not completed and include the 319 houses handed over to New Era Investments.
Of the 891 houses, 505 are at Swakopmund, 362 in Windhoek, and 24 at Opuwo. The remaining 186 houses are still the subject of disputes and negotiations.
“The government is pursuing an amicable solution and it hopes that the parties concerned exercise reasonableness to ensure the houses are completed and handed over to the needy.
“We cannot allow this situation to continue where the houses are vulnerable to vandalism and destructive weather effects,” said Uutoni.
“We recognise that the houses on this site have been standing uncompleted for many years to the dismay of the government at the highest level, and accordingly the Cabinet has directed that the disputes that have held up the completion of 891 half-built houses be resolved,” said Uutoni.
“They must be completed and handed over to the beneficiaries in the shortest possible time.” Erongo governor Neville Andre said central to the rising demand for urban land is rapid urbanisation, especially considering that the Erongo region is an economic powerhouse in Namibia.
He said most people migrating to the region end up in informal settlements, adding to the pressure of already overcrowded settlements, or establishing new settlements through illegal land occupation.
“It is very unfortunate that, because of these court battles, needy people have been waiting for more than five years to get houses,” he said.
The latest figures from the Swakopmund municipality suggest that 22 000 people are on the master list for housing.
The court cases involve contractors who reportedly failed to pay the subcontractors, resulting in the stoppage of work over five years ago.
The mass housing project was the brainchild of former president Hifikepunye Pohamba to address the country’s critical housing crisis, with a promise to build 148 000 houses by 2030.
Since the programme was inaugurated, a small ratio of houses have been constructed and are at different stages of completion in the various local authorities and regions.
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