WALVIS BAY – The possible sale of at least two blocks of land to Tunacor Limited and Seaworks to provide housing for their employees, was met with mixed feelings during the monthly Walvis Bay municipal council meeting as residents and some councillors objected to the recommendations.
The recommendations were tabled by the chairperson of the management committee, Richard Hoaeb, during the monthly meeting held at the Kuisebmond municipal chambers on Tuesday evening.
According to the council, the two fishing companies last year applied for land to construct over 1 000 houses for their employees.
These two blocks were provisionally identified, but residents loudly objected from the public gallery during the tabling of the recommendations.
They are of the opinion that land cannot be sold to fishing companies while other residents also cry for land.
According to the recommendations, the unserviced/unsurveyed single residential erven on erf 8635 Kuisebmond, with a size of 36 238 square metres, will be reserved for Tunacor Limited.
The recommendations further state that Tunacor Limited has over 3 000 employees, and wants to start a housing project that will develop at least 1 000 houses in the first phase.
“However, the technical departments had a meeting with. Tunacor Limited to look at the availability of land, and how best they can be assisted to start with phase one of their project. Therefore, it was agreed after having consulted with Tunacor Limited that the town planning section completes the planning process for the establishment of a township, and a comprehensive recommendation report be submitted to the council for consideration and final approval,” Hoaeb read from the recommendations.
This did not sit well with councillor Ephraim Shozi, who objected to the recommendation by saying that the council cannot sell such blocks of land to fishing companies, but should rather sell land at Farm 37 to them.
“We cannot give away land while our people are here suffering. I will never vote in favour of this. Those companies must be allocated land at Farm 37, as they have the financial means to develop it. Let’s keep the serviced land for our people,” he stated.
However, councillor Sara Mutondoka said the last block of land was sold to Namport, and that the current two blocks that are being considered for Seaworks and Tunacor are the only available ones in Kuisebmond. “We only have a few plots available, and council is in a position to develop it themselves. We should also take into consideration that the people employed in the fishing industry are our people who live in shacks. Hence, we must give them the land so that they develop it for our people.
Hoaeb then explained that discussions are still ongoing, and that Farm 37 has not been ruled out in terms of those discussions.
“We have not made a final decision as we still want a comprehensive plan before we can make that decision. However, we are appealing to all stakeholders to come on board so that we discuss and solve the housing issue of Walvis Bay,” he added.