MALTAHöHE – Ten village councils have signed a petition calling for the reinstatement of the Build Together Programme, which government scrapped and replaced with the mass housing scheme.
The 10 village councils that signed the petition are Tses, Bethanie, Berseba, Maltahöhe, Kalkrand, Koës, Leonardville, Gibeon, Stampriet and Witvlei.
Build Together was an ultra-low cost housing initiative through which some of the country’s lowest income earners were able to get cheap houses.
The programme was terminated after the introduction of the mass housing initiative last year.
The N$45 billion mass housing scheme was launched by President Hifikepunye Pohamba last year, with the aim of constructing 185 000 houses by 2030.
Mass housing targets urban capital centres in all 14 regions, and thereafter will be rolled out to other localities such as village councils.
Currently, the largest housing backlog is in the lowest income sectors, with monthly incomes of N$0 to N$1 500 estimated at 45 000, and incomes between N$1 501 and N$4 600 estimated at 30 000.
While the Build Together Programme focuses on people with incomes under N$3 000 per month, houses under the mass housing initiative will only be accessible to people with a monthly income of N$5 000 or more.
This constitutes less than 13 percent of the Namibian population, according to information obtained by New Era.
The petition by the 10 village councils was addressed to Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development Major-General (Rtd) Charles Namoloh last week.
The councils say the mass housing scheme is disadvantaging them.
“Honourable Minister, we are in total support of the Mass Housing Project and therefore would like to thank the Namibian government for the good gesture of addressing the most [needed] housing problem in the country as a whole,” the petition reads in part.
“Nevertheless, the implementation strategy of mass housing is to our disadvantage. Therefore, we’d like to put this humble plea on your table to revisit the termination of the Build Together Programme at village council level.”
The concerned village councils are saying the mass housing programme does not cater for them for the next two years, which contradicts housing provision.
They are therefore requesting the ministry to reconsider the decision to phase out the Build Together Programme especially on village council level for the next two years.
The major challenge they singled out is the fact that most village councils have already approved loans for beneficiaries for the Build Together Programme. Against this background, they are asking the ministry to release the finances for the programme to be completed.
Moreover, they also asked the ministry to review the mass housing project, saying the criteria used to identify beneficiaries are not clear.
“Houses are built without ownership. Low-income groups of previously disadvantaged people should have been catered for, but it seems that this mass housing is a profit-making programme.
“As leaders responsible for service delivery and as the elected leaders by mandate on the grass-root level and more closer to the electorate, we want clarity on whose houses are being built.
“Housing needs an identification process and why is this programme not catering for those who have plots and who built corrugated iron houses on their plots?”
They are also seeking the minister’s intervention regarding the millions owed to NamWater and NamPower by village councils for non-payment of water and electricity.
“Honourable Minister, during the village councils’ consultations it became evident that the mentioned issues are of a serious concern to all the village councils and therefore, the village councils are appealing to you to expedite intervention to find an amicable solution to the problem,” the petition reads.
Contacted for comment, a clearly agitated Namoloh lambasted government officials who “do not understand government programmes”.
He said the mass housing programme blueprint is clear that the first phase will be implemented within two years in urban areas before being rolled out to villages.
“I explained over and over that everyone from every corner of the country will benefit from the mass housing programme,” Namoloh said.
“Even those who sell kapana will benefit. You cannot have both programmes running at the same time. Mass housing is a programme to address the backlog of housing, and where we are building are areas identified by the regions themselves and then we will extend the programme to localities,” he said.
Namoloh said he had not yet received the village councils’ petition.