{"id":44231,"date":"2023-05-05T19:30:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T19:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed"},"modified":"2023-05-05T19:38:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T19:38:07","slug":"otweya-houses-ownership-probed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed","title":{"rendered":"Otweya houses ownership probed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>Some Otweya residents who received houses after the devastating shack fire that left 174 Twaloloka families homeless are allegedly at risk of losing their homes.<\/p>\n

Irregularities were detected during the allocation process, resulting in some people receiving houses while they were not on the initial beneficiary list of the fire victims.<\/p>\n

Erongo governor Neville Andre confirmed the latest development to New Era on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we have sent out letters to the affected parties and met with them to see how the matter can be resolved. That is all I can say, as the matter is rather sensitive and we are trying to resolve it amicably,\u201d he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The first meetings took place on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

New Era learned that some beneficiaries were added to the list by relatives, while others allegedly paid to be on the list.<\/p>\n

Some allegedly moved years ago from the town and were renting out their shack at the time of the fire.<\/p>\n

The government in 2021 made N$45 million available to construct about 197 houses in Walvis Bay when the devastating fire killed a little boy and displaced families during the Covid-19 outbreak in July 2020.<\/p>\n

The fire incident affected 174 people, of which 43 were identified as members of the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN).<\/p>\n

SDFN, through the assistance of Standard Bank Namibia, built homes for its members.<\/p>\n

In November 2021, before the official handing over of the houses, Walvis Bay Rural councillor Donatus Tegako said there were discrepancies in the allocation and questioned how the committee could overrule the councillor and governor.<\/p>\n

The houses were handed over in 2021 by President Hage Geingob to the fire victims.<\/p>\n

The erven at Otweya is between 300 and 370 square metres in size.<\/p>\n

The housing units constructed are one-bedroom units with a toilet and shower, and they are fitted with pre-paid water meters.<\/p>\n

Each house has an approved plan that can accommodate an additional two bedrooms. The beneficiaries pay for the houses through a payment plan.<\/p>\n

New Era understands that some shack owners moved away and continued to rent out their shacks to others at the time of the fire \u2013 and despite not having been directly affected by the fire, they received houses.<\/p>\n

Some of them allegedly just turned up to receive their keys and went back.<\/p>\n

As a result, 25 people received homes at the expense of the initial fire victims, which prompted an investigation into the irregularities.<\/p>\n

Project coordinator, on behalf of the works ministry, Raymond Pietersen, while handing out letters for the meeting, told New Era that investigations were prompted after it came clear that some fire victims did not receive homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeetings are with all the parties \u2013 and those who dubiously got houses will have to come and explain. At least 25 people that shouldn\u2019t have gotten houses got houses, while 19 fire victims are still without homes \u2013 and that is what we want to rectify, Pietersen said.<\/p>\n

New Era understands that some of the people who got houses in some cases moved out of the town years ago, while others are civil servants \u2013 and despite getting a housing allowance, they also received homes.<\/p>\n

Pietersen said they will be looking at these issues too.<\/p>\n

However, he indicated the issue is complex and each case will be handled on its merits.<\/p>\n

A former committee member of the Otweya project, who requested anonymity, yesterday also questioned the process, saying that taking homes from people that were already allocated will open up a can of worms.<\/p>\n

She added the houses were already transferred to the owners and that the government could face resistance as well as legal action from the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should have made it clear from the beginning how people should obtain these homes. At this stage, we don\u2019t know whether it is the person who set up the structure and moved away or the one who was living in the shack \u2013 whose belongings got burned \u2013 who should be getting the houses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. Some Otweya residents who received houses after the devastating shack fire that left 174 Twaloloka families homeless are allegedly at risk of losing their homes. Irregularities were detected during the allocation process, resulting in some people receiving houses while they were not on the initial beneficiary list of the fire victims. Erongo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":44229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-44231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nOtweya houses ownership probed - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some Otweya residents who received houses after the devastating shack fire that left 174 Twaloloka families homeless are ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Otweya houses ownership probed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some Otweya residents who received houses after the devastating shack fire that left 174 Twaloloka families homeless are ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-05T19:30:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-05T19:38:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683298839.98.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Otweya houses ownership probed\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-05T19:30:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-05T19:38:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed\"},\"wordCount\":669,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1683298839.98.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/otweya-houses-ownership-probed\",\"name\":\"Otweya houses ownership probed - 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