WINDHOEK- Khomasdal North Constituency Councillor, Magreth Mensah-Williams has criticised the City of Windhoek’s refusal to donate land where the Chinese government intends to construct a N$100 million school free of charge, despite the City’s plans to provide land to politicians at a reduced price.
The Ministry of Education requested the City to avail land free of charge so that the China can go ahead with plans to construct a state-of-the-art in the Otjomuise area where the majority of residents are essentially poor.
The municipality said it is ready to sell the requested land to the Ministry of Education at half price but will under no circumstances donate it.
The decision was made public during the City’s monthly council meeting on Thursday last week.
An official at the Chinese Embassy in Windhoek said the school will cost about N$100 million to construct.
The City’s decision received strong opposition from Mensah-Williams who questioned why the municipality was prepared to have a special land policy for politicians, yet it cannot donate land so that the poor people residing in the two informal settlements can have their own secondary school.
Mensah-Williams requested the municipality to reconsider its decision and to donate the requested land on which the school will be built.
The Khomas Regional Council wrote to the municipality in April requesting for the City to donate land in the Agste Laan Informal Settlement on which a secondary school can be built.
There are about 30 000 people, mostly school going children, living in Sewende and Agste Laan settlements.
“The People’s Republic of China has offered a donation to build a secondary school in Agste Laan Informal Settlement, provided the ministry gives the land,” Mensah-Williams stated in her letter to the City.
Municipality officials have indicated that they cannot give the land at no cost, but resolved that ERF 1701 in Otjomuise be sold to the ministry at 50 percent of the market price that will be determined by the Strategic Executive: Urban Planning and Property Management.
Although one of the councillors pleaded with his colleagues to engage the education ministry to map the way forward, Management Committee member, John Moonde was adamant that the piece of land cannot be donated free regardless of the purpose for which it is needed.
“I will stick to my gun that the ministry must buy the land for half of its value. By giving them 50 percent off we are assisting them greatly already,” Moonde said.
“If they did not make provisions in their budget for sudden expenditures like this, it is not our baby.”
Moonde added: “We understand they want the land in order to build a school on it but we also have our activities that we must carry out. The land is still available to them if they come up with the money.”
Mensah-Williams did not mince her words at the City’s apparent preferential treatment of some citizens at the expense of others.
“The City of Windhoek was prepared to have a policy for political-office bearers to buy land at a reduced price, whilst we already get housing allowances from government,” she wrote in April.
“Now if the council was prepared to have this policy for us as political-office bearers why is it difficult for the council to donate land for the poorest community to have a state-of-the-art school for their children?”
“Secondly, the municipality relocated people from other areas into the Sewende and Agste Laan and these relocations by the City of Windhoek are not communicated to the Ministry of Education thus making it difficult for them to budget properly because they are not aware of these relocations. In light of the above the Ministry would not be able to pay for this land.”
Mensah-Williams said the residents of the two settlements are amongst the poorest in the country and they cannot afford to pay the taxi fares for their children to schools outside Otjomuise and neither can they afford the school development fund.
According to Mensah-Williams’ letter, the school will be equipped with state-of-the-art computer and biological laboratories that will grant the children the opportunity to receive their education in a fully equipped school that might even have better facilities than those at private schools.