This week’s star is Minister of Urban and Rural Development Sophia Shaningwa, who last weekend resumed the allocation of houses built as part of the mass housing project.
We haven’t been happy that those houses – which cost the taxpayer a fortune – have been lying idle for many months. It reached a point where the unoccupied houses were severely vandalised, while others – especially in the South – were used by passersby as restrooms when nature called.
Mass housing was on the verge of becoming a national embarrassment, but Minister Shaningwa’s action last weekend brings a glimmer of hope to the vast number sof people, who have no place to call home.
The minister handed over 17 houses in Walvis Bay, 44 in Swakopmund and several more in Henties Bay.
Shaningwa said her ministry and the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) would start allocating all houses constructed under the first phase programme throughout the country as soon as possible.
The Harambee Prosperity Plan has tasked the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to deliver at least 20 000 new houses and approximately 26 000 serviced residential plots within the next four years.