2016-11-17Staff Report 2 Rundu The Namibia Housing Enterprise (NHE) will from next Monday start to hand over 100 newly completed houses at Rundu and Katima Mulilo for immediate occupancy by people who successfully applied for them. Residents have been waiting for the houses to be allocated. The allocation is moving at a snail’s pace but NHE says the delay in the allocation and handover is not because of the NHE but because of the two local authorities that delayed the signing of the beneficiary list for the low-cost houses. NHE says it only received the signed beneficiary list from Katima Mulilo Town Council on November 4, 2016, while they were still waiting for the signed beneficiary list from the Rundu Town Council. Rundu CEO Romanus Haironga said they have already submitted the beneficiary list but could not say when this list was submitted to NHE. “We gave it to them long ago,” Haironga said. In allocating the houses NHE is being guided by the waiting list approved by local authorities and the conditions set by the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development in terms of the Build Together project’s qualifying criteria, while the NHE waiting list is used to allocate credit-linked houses. “We are working in line with a directive of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development which dictates that the allocation of social houses must be done based on the beneficiary list signed off by the town mayor and CEO,” said Mutonga Matali, senior communication and marketing officer at NHE. “To this end, allocation is ongoing and I am pleased to inform you that a minimum of 40 houses (out of 96 allocated social houses) will be handed to clients for occupancy in Katima Mulilo from the 21st November (Monday) and in Rundu, 60 of the 185 houses have been allocated, and handing over of the social houses is expected to commence by the 28th November,” said Matali. Matali further said that with regard to the houses standing empty, the public should not be worried that they might be vandalised as they are being guarded. “All mass housing development programme houses are guarded to mitigate the risk of vandalism. This responsibility lies with the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development in conjunction with local authorities,” he said. Matali further noted that in line with the NHE Credit Policy, applicants must earn a maximum income limit of N$20 000 per month (gross salary including housing allowance and subsidy). “If an applicant has a monthly gross salary of more than N$20 000, then he/she will not be allowed to purchase a NHE property. For a joint monthly income, a total of N$30 000 is the threshold as maximum limit for applicants,” Matali noted. NHE is using a consolidated waiting list as per the instruction of the Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Sophia Shaningwa, meaning that even though beneficiaries for credit-linked products are from the NHE waiting list, proper consultations are held between NHE and local authorities regarding beneficiaries for both credit-linked and social houses. Further, there are clients who are referred to commercial banks for home loan financing, which process is not in the control of NHE as commercial banks have internal screening processes. NHE remains fully committed to ensure that all mass housing development programme houses are handed to clients as soon as possible. 2016-11-17Staff Report 2
