2016-11-08Staff Report 2 Walvis Bay - Coastal ship repair company, Elgin Brown and Hamer Namibia has set the tone in terms of the provision of affordable housing through the public private partnership (PPP) that will allow its workers to become proud homeowners. EBH employs about 370 workers of whom over 240 do not own homes due to the escalating housing prices, which makes owning a house a distant dream. However, the PPP initiative gives hope to first-time homeowners of the company as it has made a commitment to build 214 affordable houses for its employees. The houses will be built on 100 00 square metres of unserviced land behind Tutaleni within the next two years. EBH yesterday said it already bought the land for about N$8 million from the Walvis Bay Municipality in 2013 with the aim to build houses for employees. The cost of the houses ranges from N$340 000 for a one-bedroom house to N$700 000 for a three-bedroom house. Yesterday the chief executive officer of EBH, Hannes Uys, said EBH has always taken its corporate social responsibility investment seriously, and took cognisance of the housing shortages and bought the virgin land with the aim to develop it for its employees. “The security of living in one’s own home has been a dream we had for our employees, hence the land was bought. It took quite some time to gain momentum and we finally did,” he explained. He added that the planned affordable houses for staff demonstrate EBH’s strong commitment towards the social well-being of their employees and families. “EBH from the onset of this initiative has gone to great length to not only lock in optimal affordability through its purchase and donation of the land but we will not be making any profit from this initiative as it is solely aimed at providing houses to our employees,” Uys said. The developer of the project, Oshipe Turnkey, was granted the tender for the construction of the houses. According to the Pierre de Wet, the Technical Director of Oshipe, it will cost about N$100 million to develop and service the land. He also said that the project would create about 300 jobs during its duration. 2016-11-08Staff Report 2
