Keetmanshoop
The //Kharas regional coordinator of the Swapo Party, Matheus Mumbala says fingers should be pointed to administrators and not central government for the lack of housing across the country.
Mumbala said it is the failure of administrators to implement government policies properly, which caused the housing backlog and consequently the high prices of residential land.
Mumbala was speaking at the land consultative meeting with leaders from various Traditional Authorities in the region at the Swapo //Kharas regional office on Wednesday.
He said the people tasked with implementation are the source of the problem and should be the ones to blame for failing to implement good policies. “I don’t know if it’s corruption, or they are sick in their heads,” he said of the administrators.
He said over the years, government tried to come up with projects to address housing needs, but in the end some individuals hijacked these projects to benefitted themselves and their cronies.
Using the example of the mass housing project, he explained it was aimed at addressing the housing needs of the Namibian people as a matter of urgency when it commenced during former president Hifikepunye Pohamba’s term, but had to be stopped because government realised something went wrong.
People took advantage of government tenders by awarding them to their friends, who in turn involved many middle-men, because they want to make money and this pushed up the prices of the houses meant for low-income households, he said.
“NHE was entrusted with the mass housing, but look at what’s happening,” he noted, adding that it had to be halted so that certain problems caused by administrators can be ironed out before the project can proceed.
“So why did mass housing stop? Let me just say it was because of corruption. That’s it,” he concluded.
Deliberating on the land issue, as directed by the Swapo party central committee, on how different sectors can help government tackle the land issue, the traditional leaders present developed a general consensus that even in the communal areas land is scarce and thus government should start purchasing farms bordering communal areas, so that they can form part of the communal areas and thus more people could be resettled.