Urban and rural development minister James Sankwasa has given the contractor responsible for the completion of the Otjomuise Mass Housing Development Programme until 30 November this year to complete all outstanding houses.
During a visit to the site this week, Sankwasa made it clear that no further excuses will be entertained and no extensions will be granted, as the completion of the houses has been long overdue.
Sankwasa was joined by the ministry’s senior management, Khomas governor, City of Windhoek CEO, National Housing Enterprise CEO and various councillors.
“Let’s agree here and now that all these houses will be fully completed by 30 November this year, and people should occupy them by then. In fact, by around 5 December, I will come back here, and I would want to see people occupying these houses. There will be no more delays and extensions. This project has been standing still since 2017, and we are now in 2025; it is totally unacceptable. Let’s finish it and move on to other projects. We can’t be at the same place for almost 10 years; it must be finished this year,” said the minister.
Legal tussle
Construction at the Otjomuise site came to a halt following a 2017 legal tussle between the contractor CalgroKuumba Planning and Design and ministry.
CalgroKuumba Planning and Design, a joint venture between Bigen Infrastructure Services Namibia and Afrikuumba Holdings, was in 2014 contracted by the National Housing Enterprise to construct 1 187 houses at Otjomuise Extension 10 under the mass housing development programme.
CalgroKuumba commenced with the construction of the said houses and in June 2015, the ministry announced the suspension of the mass housing programme, by which time CalgroKuumba had already started with the construction of 362 houses.
Despite the suspension of the programme, in February 2016, the company and the ministry signed an agreement for the completion of the 362 houses on which construction had already started. But further delays and internal bickering led to a protracted legal dispute between the company and the ministry that brought the construction of the houses to a complete standstill in 2017.
The Otjomuise mass houses form part of the 21 sites across the country where the State-funded Mass Housing projects were to be implemented and as of late last year, more than three sites still had hundreds of incomplete houses.
In 2013, government reaffirmed its unwavering commitment towards scaling up the provision of affordable housing when the Cabinet adopted the Mass Housing Development Programme blueprint, which was to make available thousands of low-cost houses to Namibians of all social classes.
The Otjomuise mass housing project, situated at Otjomuise Extension 10, still has over 362 incomplete houses, while other sites such as at Opuwo and Swakopmund still have 24 and 186 unfinished houses.
As of October 2022, there were 505 incomplete houses in Swakopmund but efforts were made to bring that number down through the completion of 319 by June last year, leaving 186 houses unfinished.
The revised National Housing Policy, which was approved by Cabinet in 2023, makes provision for the continuation of existing housing programmes, as well as increased funding and investment by the government and its partners in land and housing for targeted low-income groups.
The policy additionally provides for the establishment of a housing subsidy. Once completed, the Otjomuise houses will be allocated to beneficiaries who will be selected from the waiting lists of the National Housing Enterprise and the Windhoek Municipality on a first-come, first-served basis.
– ohembapu@nepc.com.na