By Mbatjiua Ngavirue WINDHOEK The National Housing Enterprise (NHE) has released a statement emphatically refuting serious allegations made against the corporation and Chief Executive Officer Vincent Hailulu by the Namibia Financial Institutions Union (Nafinu). The state-owned company pointed out that Nafinu declared a dispute in October 2006, accusing the NHE of violating the Labour Act and its own employment policies. The dispute was heard by a Conciliation Board set up by the Labour Commissioner, but according to the NHE the board found nothing wrong with the way the company dealt with the restructuring and reorganisation of the company. “Surely, this tells a big story that the restructuring and reorganisation of the NHE was done in line with the relevant provisions of the Labour Law,” the company said. The NHE said the accusation that the company is going down and that it has not built any houses since Hailulu took over is a misrepresentation of the facts and devoid of any truth. The NHE had only built 313 houses the year Hailulu took over, and not developed a single plot. When he took over, the NHE developed a corporate strategy in which a housing development target of building 1 200 houses a year was set. In pursuit of this strategy, the CEO travelled to most local authorities in the country to acquire land for housing, resulting in the acquisition of 5 000 erven. Plans were now under way to service this land in places such as Oshakati, Outapi, Helao Nafidi, Rundu, Katima Mulilo and Luderitz. Since Hailulu took over, the NHE had developed 300 houses in Windhoek, Walvis Bay, Keetmanshoop, Ondangwa, Eenhana and Swakopmund. Housing development projects were furthermore still underway for additional houses in Walvis Bay, Ondangwa, Outapi, Oshivelo, Ariamsvlei and Eenhana, which are due for completion in June 2007. Another successful project currently underway was the construction of houses for war veterans in 10 regions of the country, which are due for completion by the end of March 2007. The NHE completed the first house recently and was due for handover to the beneficiary two months before the scheduled completion time. The NHE said that if Nafinu or any of the affected felt that the company did something wrong legally speaking, they could seek legal recourse as provided for in the country’s laws. “It is the NHE contention that going the route Nafinu has opted to follow is not the mature way of handling organisational issues and surely does not best represent the interest of the affected employees,” the NHE said.