WINDHOEK – Houses constructed under the government’s mass housing development programme in Otjomuise’s Extension 10 in Windhoek are still far from occupation, Minister of Urban and Rural Development Peya Mushelenga has said.
Mushelenga said this in parliament last week while responding to Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) parliamentarian Nico Smith, who wanted to know when these houses will be available for occupation.
The mass housing project was former President Hifikepunye Pohamba’ s idea that was mooted to answer to Namibia’s housing crisis, with a promise to build 148 000 houses by 2030.
Around 360 houses completed under government’s mass housing programme in Otjomuise’s Extension 10 have still not been handed over to beneficiaries, three years after most of them were completed.
Mushelenga told lawmakers last week Wednesday that the houses will only be ready for occupation once the approval of general plans by the surveyor general and consequent proclamation of the amended town planning scheme for Otjomuise Extension 10.
“Once the proclamation is done, the approval of the drawings for bulk services by the City, and the commencement and completion of the construction of additional bulk services and connecting of the houses thereto,” he said.
“It is estimated that the installation will take place about 12 months after the approval of the drawing for additional bulk services by Windhoek municipality,” he said, adding that he has demanded and will continue to demand expeditious action.
Executive Director in the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development Nghidinua Daniel in March this year said the reason why the new Otjomuise houses were not yet connected to the bulk services network was because the finalisation of the design drawing of bulk services could not be approved because the proclamation of the township is still pending.
He said with outstanding approval of the bulk drawing, the actual installation or construction of the said services cannot commence and the houses cannot be connected to the bulk services.
“The update on re-planning is that the revised town planning layout was approved in December 2018 and the general plans are currently before the Surveyor-General for consideration,” he said at the time.
He explained that with the approval of the Mass Housing Development Programme (MHDP) in 2013, local authorities were approached to avail land on which houses under the initiative could be built.
“The houses that were to be funded through the MHDP were to be built on a portion of the total block of the land or township, which already had bulk services and infrastructure development or installed on it by the Windhoek municipality with funding from the central government under the Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (Tipeeg),” Daniel had said.