Windhoek
The Walvis Bay Municipality is under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission over the manner in which land is allocated at the coastal town. Prompting the investigation are complaints by Walvis Bay residents that the well-connected receive special treatment when land is allotted.
One of the land transactions being probed is the sale of 19 unserviced plots at a price of N$167 000 to a company co-owned by the Swapo councillor for Walvis Bay Rural Constituency, Johannes Nangolo, and Michael Nalili Kawiwa who served as the ruling party’s section coordinator for Narraville. The other directors in the company are Shatilwe Josephat Uutoni and Wiseman Molatzi.
The company, Proprietors Business Solutions CC, applied for the land ostensibly to build affordable houses and apartments. The plots measure a combined 6 700 square metres.
The Anti-Corruption Commission director Paulus Noa confirmed to New Era that the anti-graft body has been investigating the Walvis Bay Municipality since last year over the manner in which it allocates land.
Noa did not however divulge the finer details of the investigation, neither did he say when it could be expected to be concluded. He could also not specify whether the investigation is looking into the sale of the land to Proprietors Business Solutions. “I do not have the files with me now, so I cannot confirm whether it is the same case we are talking about.” Proprietors Business Solutions says the land on which it intends building apartments is a “project [that would] improve the quality and quantity of affordable housing units for Walvis Bay … to boost economic growth and reduce poverty by providing suitable and sustainable housing units for better settlement in Kuisebmond.”
Proprietors Business Solutions’ main shareholder, Kawiwa, is currently employed by Conselect Engineering Services, of which Molatzi is the chairperson.
Earlier this month, Conselect entered into a public private partnership agreement with the Otjiwarongo Municipality regarding the town’s industrial area.
The Walvis Bay Municipality CEO Muronga Haingura last week said there was nothing wrong with the price at which the land was sold, because the council has no standard rates on the pricing of unserviced land.
“The price is determined by the presentations made to council and the proposed investment,” he said.
“There is a huge outcry over land as well as the price, so in a way we are helping our people acquire land at a reasonable price,” he said.
The deal comes almost a year after the Swakopmund Municipality decided to stop selling unserviced land to property developers, saying the practice cost the council about N$590 million in the last 10 years – money that could have formalized the entire informal settlement in the town. Haingura acknowledged that there have been complaints about the manner in which council allocates land. “Although it is not documented, we get these complaints whenever we have our community meetings,” he said.
Haingura said the majority of the people want serviced land but due to the lack of resources the council cannot keep up with demand.
“We are forced to sell unserviced land to those with money, and in turn use that money to service land,” he said.
There have also been claims that one of the senior managers in the property division at the municipality was found with an undisclosed amount of money in his office – suspected to be a kickback from a property deal.
In a bid to enhance transparency, the Minister of Urban and Rural Development Sophia Shaningwa unveiled an electronic Urban Land Management Information System which will, among others, ensure that the names of only first-time buyers feature on housing waiting lists.
Shaningwa has also repeatedly called on municipalities to stop the practice of allocating multiple plots to individuals or to the same organization, but these pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
Most municipalities claim that some of the applications were already approved before Shaningwa’s directive was given.