Windhoek
In June the Walvis Bay Municipality sold a prime piece of land, measuring 1784 square metres, to the spokesperson of the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) for N$1.5 million, which he then sold that very same day to a Windhoek-based businessman for N$4.1 million.
Documentary evidence of land transactions at Walvis Bay Municipality, seen by New Era, indicates that Neville Itope Andre bought and sold the land on 26 June this year, but the youth league leader disputed the evidence when asked about this unusual transaction.
Andre was recently endorsed as SPYL’s new secretary for information, publicity and mobilisation, replacing Job Amupanda, who resigned from the position last year.
The record suggests the SPYL leader was able to pocket N$2.6 million from the transaction, money which might very well have boosted the income of the municipality if the land was sold at the price Andre was able to resell it for.
He also dismissed any suggestions that his late mother, Kaino Andre, who was a municipal councilor at Walvis Bay until she passed away in December last year, had any hand in how he acquired the land from the municipality.
New Era understands that Andre sold the prime piece of land to Harpie Investments, owned by Windhoek businessman Hopker Henry Hermann, who owns a well-known pharmacy in Windhoek.
Although Andre maintains that the two transactions both took place last year, New Era has confirmed that Harpie Investments was only registered as a company this year.
Andre also disputes the figures cited in the two transactions, but would not reveal what the supposed correct amounts are. Detailed information about the two transactions is contained in the Walvis Bay municipality’s local authority transfer report.
Andre promised to provide documents detailing the two transactions to counter the evidence New Era presented him with, but failed to do so by the time of going to print.
Disputing his late mother’s involvement in the deal, Andre said: “When I applied for the plot my mother was already in hospital and she did not have any influence on this process.”
He said he briefed his mother about his plans to buy land from Walvis Bay Municipality, but dismissed any suggestion she was a catalyst in the deal. “I got the plot last year already, not this year. And as for the selling price, I sold it for less than N$2 million,” he said.
Andre said he originally applied for the plot with the aim of building an office complex, but his partners later withdrew from the project. It was the withdrawal of his partners that forced him to sell the property, he said yesterday.
“The plan was to get rid of the plot and not profit-driven, because if I had kept it, it would have had financial repercussions for me,” he explained. Andre argued that the price of the plot increased because of the transfer costs involved.
Earlier this year Swakopmund Municipality admitted it lost out on potential revenue of N$590 million over the past decade after introducing the dubious policy of selling unserviced land to private firms. Government this year also placed a ban on the sale of unserviced land to private developers, but many municipalities have found a new way of selling land, through so-called public private partnerships. Cabinet recently released 89 resolutions related to serviced land, rent control and price controls with regard to land sales, and Urban and Rural Development Minister Sophia Shaningwa has repeatedly warned town councils against entering into non-beneficial public-private partnerships. She also said she would not approve any questionable land deals.