OKANDJIRA – Improved housing, the timeous delivery of serviced plots and enhanced service delivery are key to Omatako constituency councillor Israel Hukura. 

He recently extended the residential leasehold rights of 134 residents, and located an additional seven new business plots to the residents of the Ovitoto settlement. 

The 134 residential leaseholds were extended for a period of six months until 30 June 2025, with the condition that the plots will be fully developed within the extended period, and that outstanding debts be settled within the given period as well. Hukura told New Era that a total of 109 leasehold rights were renewed for a period of five years and three leasehold rights were terminated, while 18 applicants for residential leaseholds are on the waiting list to be considered first in the next allocations. 

“This is part of our ongoing efforts to open and give our people decent housing. At the end of this programme, over 300 residents of Ovitoto will own plots where they can build proper houses and as you have seen, most of them who already received have started constructing their houses. It is a costly exercise, but we are determined to deliver on our promise of decent housing and the right to a piece of land for our residents,” he said. 

Plans are also afoot to expand the settlement’s boundaries and come up with a new and improved plan of demarcating the various locations to make way for better and planned service delivery and make room for growth. 

“We are also in the process of coming up with a new plan to rearrange and demarcate the various locations into proper sections. That way, it will be easy for basic services such as water, electricity and housing to reach the people. A consultant has already been identified and soon the process of rearranging the settlement will start, as that is the only way we can bring development to our constituency.” 

Omatako constituency does not have an urban area (local authority), it only has one settlement which is Okandjira settlement, and the rest of its area is rural. Okandjira is the administrative centre of the Omatako constituency, and is administered by the Otjozondjupa Regional Council. 

A few key government institutions are housed at Okandjira, which include the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, particularly its Directorate of Rural Water Supply and Extension Services. 

There is a clinic, one police station, one secondary school, one Combined school and four primary schools in the constituency. 

-ohembapu@nepc.com.na