Amicable settlement eyed in Amushelelo housing dispute over deposit repayment

A close corporation involved in a housing project that was promoted by social activist Michael Amushelelo is engaged in settlement negotiations with a woman suing it to have a deposit she paid for a house returned to her.

In a status report filed at the Windhoek High Court, the court has been informed that the close corporation PGSN Property Housing Namibia, which is trading under the name Property Group Save Namibia, and Windhoek resident Rutha Kashile have engaged in settlement negotiations and that the prospects for a settlement are favourable.

Kashile and the close corporation asked the court to postpone the matter for four weeks on Wednesday for settlement negotiations to be finalised.

Kashile is suing PGSN Property Housing Namibia for N$83 912, which she says she paid to the close corporation from January 2021 to March 2023 as a deposit for a three-bedroom house at Windhoek’s Brakwater area she was supposedly buying from Property Group Save Namibia.

In addition to asking the court to order the close corporation to pay N$83 912 back to her, Kashile is asking for an order declaring that PGSN Property Housing Namibia, the close corporation’s two members, Johannes Ndivanga and Ludwig Nakale, and Amushelelo and fellow activist Dimbulukeni Nauyoma conducted the business of Property Group Save Namibia “recklessly and in a grossly negligent manner”, as contemplated in a section of the Close Corporations Act.

If the court declares that Ndivanga, Nakale, Amushelelo and Nauyoma conducted the business of the close corporation recklessly and grossly negligently, it should hold them personally liable for its debts as well, Kashile is asking.

She is also requesting the court to declare that a property purchase agreement that she and Property Group Save Namibia signed in June 2022 is null and void.

A lawyer representing the close corporation, Kadhila Amoomo, notified the court in October that PGSN Property Housing Namibia is opposing the legal action being taken against it.

Kashile is claiming she and the close corporation agreed in terms of a written property purchase agreement signed in June 2022 that she would buy a three-bedroom house from Property Group Save Namibia at a price of N$844 240.

However, the land in the Brakwater area where the house was to be built had not been declared an approved township in terms of the Urban and Regional Planning Act of 2018 when the purchase agreement was signed, Kashile’s lawyer, Virginia O’Malley, says in Kashile’s claim filed at the court.

O’Malley claims that Property Group Save Namibia unlawfully accepted money from Kashile before the declaration of a township where her house was to be built.

O’Malley is also claiming that Amushelelo and Nauyoma, who are not members of the close corporation, represented to Kashile that they were in control of Property Group Save Namibia’s housing development project as part of the Affirmative Repositioning movement.

Amushelelo and Nauyoma “were also central to the promotion, negotiations and execution of the development project”, O’Malley claims.

She further claims that Amushelelo, Nauyoma, Ndivanga and Nakale knowingly made false representations about the close corporation’s ability to fulfil its obligations under the purchase agreement, or allowed misrepresentations to be made, to Kashile and members of the public.

The false representations included claims that PGSN Property Housing Namibia would be able to deliver serviced land and homes at affordable prices, despite being aware that the close corporation could not fulfil such obligations, since no township has been declared, O’Malley claims.

“The defendants’ conduct constitutes fraudulent and/or negligent misrepresentation, reckless business practices, and a violation of statutory duties under the Urban and Regional Planning Act,” O’Malley claims as well.

No plea on behalf of the defendants has been filed at the court yet.

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