Windhoek
The Namibia National Student’s Organsiation (Nanso) has joined the voices of landless youths countrywide who want a place to call home, as serviced land remains out of reach for many.
The land issue remains topical in the country, with government weighing different approaches it intends to employ in resolving what is fast becoming an unnecessary crisis.
Another burning issue is that many Namibians continue to be priced out of the property market, especially during auctions where the rich and wealthy flex their muscles against their less-monied competitors.
Nanso Secretary for Information and Communication Technology, Vincent Shimutwikeni said the organisation has closely followed the land debate.
Nanso’s concern regarding land and the housing prices is linked to students’ struggling to afford accommodation, with many of them renting in back yard flats and garages at exorbitant prices.
“It is for this reasons that we feel necessity to further engross on this issue. We identify with the struggle of the landless, because these are the parents of our members,” said Shimutwikeni.
“We are landless together with our parents. How can we not support the struggle that will give us comfortable homes to study? We will soon announce a practical program to advance this struggle,” he stressed.
He says students are forced to rent tiny rooms of the size of toilet for which landlords charge them around N$4000 per month.
“What type of country (is this) with no student prices? After careful calculation, we realised that about 80 percent of students at institutions of higher learning are without accommodation.”
“The hostels at high schools are also insufficient, leaving our members with no choice but to be molested by greedy landlords with connections to politicians,” he remarked.
Against this, he said that the General Student Council, which is Nanso’s second highest decision-making body, resolved on April 4 this year that the government should invest in building school hostels.
The council also called on government to ensure that the public-private-partnerships entered into to build accommodation are not exploitive to students as “we strongly oppose the commercialisation of hostels at institutions of higher learning.”
The organisation is therefore calling on government to build affordable student villages.
“The rich and wealthy are pushing to maintain the status quo while the activists are pushing to reform the status quo,” he said.
“Some of the landless youth, who submitted land applications all over the country, were former students, student leaders and leaders of Nanso who just graduated from the institutions of higher learning.”
“It is not our wish that they suffer after they left student life. It is not our wish that they suffer to a point where they are subjected to an undesirable situation of renting and suffer for not having a place to call home,” he said.