200 000 people live in shacks: Shixwameni

MOST of the working class in Namibia – about 200 000 people who are building the country’s wealth which is enjoyed by only a few – are living in shacks, have to walk up to 15 kilometres to work, earn less than N$60 000 a year and cannot afford decent housing, a member of the opposition has told Parliament.

Ignatius Shixwameni, president of the All People’s Party (APP), yesterday tabled a motion in Parliament requesting the House to debate the deplorable state of housing for low wage earners in Namibia.
He proposed that a housing subsidy should be imposed on employers, compelling them to either provide housing for their workers or to pay them a housing subsidy.
‘Those earning less than N$60 000 per annum are at the bottom of the employment ladder and they find it difficult to make ends meet. They are also largely in the category who do not qualify for home loans from commercial banks,’ Shixwameni said.
Employers should also provide transport subsidies, as workers had to either rely on expensive taxis or were trucked ‘like cattle’ on large open lorries from work, which reminded him of the apartheid labour contract system, Shixwameni added.
The APP president was scheduled to table his motion before the three-week recess of the National Assembly, but Local Government Minister Jerry Ekandjo had raised objections.
Ekandjo told Shixwameni that a similar motion had been tabled by another opposition MP previously and that Shixwameni could have raised his concerns during the budget debate.
Ekandjo said then that ‘the House’ would vote against the tabling of the motion, meaning the Swapo majority.
Yesterday, however, Ekandjo was absent and there were no objections.
A brief debate ensued and the first speaker was Foreign Affairs Minster Utoni Nujoma, who called the APP president’s motion opportunistic and said he was trying to score cheap political points.
‘The US took almost 300 years to develop and France about 200 years. Namibia is a young country,’ Nujoma junior stated.
‘Both Shixwameni and [CoD president] Ben Ulenga were in Swapo [before] and in Swapo we discuss issues affecting our people and Swapo is committed to alleviate the plight of the people,’ Nujoma added.
Ulenga then requested the Speaker, Theo-Ben Gurirab, to ‘stop the rubbishing of a very important motion’.
‘The US has a large budget but even there people sleep under the bridges,’ Nujoma continued.
The ruling party was willing to work together with the opposition in Parliament, but they should offer constructive criticism and not table opportunistic motions, Nujoma said.
Deputy Safety and Security Minister Erastus Uutoni said at Ongwediva and Oshakati many houses had been built in recent years and more areas were serviced for housing plots.
‘But you are only mentioning two towns in the country,’ Arnold Tjihuiko (Nudo) interjected, lightening the potentially tense atmosphere in the House.
Prime Minister Nahas Angula said Government wanted each Namibian to have shelter and the State was supporting the ‘Build Together’ housing organisation.
The debate was adjourned until tomorrow.