The ownership of both the 23 hectare plot where the new State House is rising in the capital's Auasblick residential area, as well as an adjacent 17-hectare piece of land, are still not registered in Government's name, a check of ownership records at the Registrar of Deeds in the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation confirmed yesterday.

The latest available municipal valuation records also reflect the City as still being the legal owner of the plots of land, where large-scale construction work on the new State House has already been in full swing for months.

While the State does not yet legally own the land on which the future home of Namibia's Presidents is being built, Government already has its eyes on adjacent properties.

Owners of nearby houses and undeveloped plots of land were informed a month ago that they will have to sell their properties to Government.

Concerns over the security of the President, should other people live close to the new State House, were cited as the primary reason for the expropriation move.

DTA CLAIMS

The Namibian carried out the ownership checks yesterday after the Chairperson of the DTA of Namibia, National Assembly member Johan de Waal, told a press briefing earlier that information gathered from the City of Windhoek indicated:

* that the land still belongs to the City;
* that Government had not yet paid for the land;
* that Government and the City have deadlocked in negotiations on the price that is to be paid for the land when it is bought from the City; * that the site chosen for the new State House had been occupied without the City Council's knowledge or approval;
* that building work on the site had started without authorisation or compliance with City building regulations; and
* that a road passing by the State House site had been closed to the public without the legal requirements on street closures being followed.

Neither the Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Moses Amweelo, under whose Ministry the State House construction project falls, nor the senior Department of Works official dealing directly with the project were available for comment when their offices were contacted yesterday afternoon.

CITY INFO REVEALED

De Waal had addressed the press conference in the Parliament buildings flanked by several party colleagues, including Ilme Schneider, one of the DTA's Windhoek City Council members.

Schneider explained that, following a City Council meeting last week at which the State House project was also discussed, she decided to share information on the project and the expropriation plan provided to the City Council with her party leaders.

De Waal claimed that after last week's Council meeting it became clear that ruling party City Councillors were intent on not making information about the project public.

"They're being bullied.

There's nothing they can do for the ratepayers.

That's the essence of this story," said De Waal.

Accusing Government of having "grabbed the land on which State House is being built without the agreement of the municipality", he stated that Government had initially, in 1995, only asked for an area comprising some 23 hectares for the project.

During 2001-02, the Ministry of Works asked the City for a further 17 hectares of land, situated next to the area already earmarked by it, De Waal claimed.

With a total of some 40 hectares of City Council land wanted by Government, no agreement could be reached with the City by late last year on what price would be paid for the land, De Waal said.

When two independent valuators were called in to determine a price - and with both parties having agreed to abide by the value that would be determined - Government by November 2002 however refused to agree to pay the City the N$24 million for the land that it had been valued at, Schneider added.

The next move, said De Waal, was for some 67 property owners in the neighbourhood to be targeted for possible expropriation, without this being discussed with the City, and with no agreement having been reached with the City for it to be compensated for the loss in income from private property owners' rate payments that could be expected from the move.

He charged that the entire State House development "is being done in blatant disregard" of the laws of Namibia and of the Constitution, with city residents being forced to, in effect, subsidise the development of the new State House.

The actual cost of the State House project has varied between a succession of national budgets in recent years.

In last year's three-year development budget, starting with the 2002-03 financial year, the project's budgeted cost was put at N$242,8 million.

The next year's three-year development budget reflected a figure of N$116,8 million for the "designing phase" of the project only.

Namibia's Second National Development Plan gives yet another figure for the project cost, putting its construction at some N$264 million and providing a further N$10,8 million for "State House Development".

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