Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) president McHenry Venaani says the piecemeal approach taken to housing and rural and urban development is concerning.
In his contribution to the Appropriation Bill debate in the National Assembly recently, he said while finance minister Ericah Shafudah acknowledged that housing and informal settlement upgrading are priority investment areas to unlock economic opportunities and ensure the delivery of social services, the funds allocated were inadequate.
“I must again stress that the fiscal commitment falls dramatically short of the policy rhetoric. What is lacking again, is a coherent, costed, and implementable national housing delivery strategy,” Venaani said.
The Ministry of Urban and Rural Development has been allocated N$2.7 billion from the national budget for the 2025/26 financial year, and over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), the vote received N$8.5 billion.
Venaani noted that after decades of policy commitments, the housing backlog has ballooned beyond 300 000 units, and more than 900 000 Namibians still live in informal settlements with insecure tenure, limited access to sanitation, and no formal title deeds to their land.
He said the finance minister once again made funds for informal settlements’ upgrading available, but with no clear meaning.
He asked: “How many plots will be serviced? How many families will be resettled? Where is the accompanying breakdown of urban land infrastructure projects in towns like Rundu, Katima Mulilo or Otjiwarongo?”
“Upgrading has now become a euphemism, a regurgitation, if you will, for laying gravel where there was previously sand, and installing three water taps in a neighbourhood,” the parliamentarian said.
Venaani further said young professionals such as teachers, nurses, and police officers are continually finding themselves locked out of the housing market.
“They are forced to rent backyard flats or shacks because the State has failed to stimulate affordable urban land supply,” he said.
Another contradiction, he highlighted, is that while housing is described as a priority, the development budget for the entire Ministry of Urban and Rural Development remains stagnant when adjusted for inflation.
The PDM leader asked where the transformative vision and the public-private partnerships to scale up serviced land delivery are.
He also asked for the revision of the outdated Mass Housing Development Framework, which collapsed years ago under the weight of bureaucratic inefficiency and cost overruns.
-Nampa