Anger boils over at Uis

AROUND 200 Uis residents took to the streets on Saturday to express dismay over the sale of the greater part of the village to an individual.

They called for the immediate cancellation of the 10-year-old deal as well as a probe into who benefited from it. The residents handed over a petition to Daures Regional Councillor Apius Auchab, who promised to take up the issue with the Ministry of Local Government through the Erongo Regional Council.Gerson Doeseb, one of the organisers of the march, informed residents that they would make a submission to the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Legal Assistance Centre this week to also investigate the dubious deal.On Friday, Namibia Base Metals (NBM), which bought the land through Albert Weitz, said the process was done procedurally.Imkor Tin, a subsidiary of Iscor South Africa, closed down in 1991 due to a collapse of tin prices on the world market.NBM said the private treaty was entered into almost five years after all mining operations had stopped and most of the mining houses were vacated by retrenched staff.The company bought a part of the mine with all its structures from Government, which owned the land on which the mine had been operating since 1958.It then approached Government to proclaim Uis as a town and to re-install necessary municipal services.The services were installed after the Government valuated the land at N$240 000.Uis was proclaimed a town on April 1 1998.Weitz sad NBM legally bought townlands One, Two and Three from the Government and subdivided portion One into 115 erven.Eight erven were reserved for the State and the streets were also transferred to the Ministry of Local Government as Uis became a village with its own Council.Weitz said the deal was a risky one, as no financial institution was prepared to risk financing it, given that the Uis area was largely vacated and no track record of any kind existed with regard to the demand for property in the area.He said Uis was dying slowly, save for the investment NBM made to resurrect the town, and privatisation of properties would not have materialised without the provision of municipal services.Today, 95 per cent of the houses at Uis remain in private hands and property prices have increased, according to Weitz.Most of the houses and other buildings have been transformed into tourism establishments, which capitalise on holidaymakers stopping over en route to the former western Damaraland and Etosha.Weitz said he also took a loan of N$5,5 million from the Development Bank of Namibia for the extension and upgrading of Namclay Brickworks and created 60 new jobs in the last two years.They manufacture clay bricks and related products at a very reasonable price and hope that the project will support the Village Council through infrastructure development.Weitz said around 1 800 people were living in an informal settlement in a communal area adjacent to the Imkor town area when he bought the townlands and it was sad to see that a false impression had been created that they were living on the land bought by NBM.Joseph Kauandenge of the Namibia Democratic Movement for Change (NDMC) said almost ten days ago that the “the souls and minds of 3 000 Uis residents were sold to the gates of hell without looking at the immense consequences of such a decision”.He said by signing off on the land, Government had sold its own people to a foreigner “who does not care a hoot about their welfare”.Weitz said he was not a foreigner and had acted within the parameters of the law and had been transparent at all times.He said he was “solely responsible” for preventing the defunct Imkor mine from turning into a ghost town like the nearby abandoned Brandberg-West Mine.The residents handed over a petition to Daures Regional Councillor Apius Auchab, who promised to take up the issue with the Ministry of Local Government through the Erongo Regional Council.Gerson Doeseb, one of the organisers of the march, informed residents that they would make a submission to the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Legal Assistance Centre this week to also investigate the dubious deal.On Friday, Namibia Base Metals (NBM), which bought the land through Albert Weitz, said the process was done procedurally.Imkor Tin, a subsidiary of Iscor South Africa, closed down in 1991 due to a collapse of tin prices on the world market.NBM said the private treaty was entered into almost five years after all mining operations had stopped and most of the mining houses were vacated by retrenched staff.The company bought a part of the mine with all its structures from Government, which owned the land on which the mine had been operating since 1958.It then approached Government to proclaim Uis as a town and to re-install necessary municipal services.The services were installed after the Government valuated the land at N$240 000.Uis was proclaimed a town on April 1 1998.Weitz sad NBM legally bought townlands One, Two and Three from the Government and subdivided portion One into 115 erven.Eight erven were reserved for the State and the streets were also transferred to the Ministry of Local Government as Uis became a village with its own Council.Weitz said the deal was a risky one, as no financial institution was prepared to risk financing it, given that the Uis area was largely vacated and no track record of any kind existed with regard to the demand for property in the area.He said Uis was dying slowly, save for the investment NBM made to resurrect the town, and privatisation of properties would not have materialised without the provision of municipal services.Today, 95 per cent of the houses at Uis remain in private hands and property prices have increased, according to Weitz.Most of the houses and other buildings have been transformed into tourism establishments, which capitalise on holidaymakers stopping over en route to the former western Damaraland and Etosha.Weitz said he also took a loan of N$5,5 million from the Development Bank of Namibia for the extension and upgrading of Namclay Brickworks and created 60 new jobs in the last two years.They manufacture clay bricks and related products at a very reasonable price and hope that the project will support the Village Council through infrastructure development.Weitz said around 1 800 people were living in an informal settlement in a communal area adjacent to the Imkor town area when he bought the townlands and it was sad to see that a false impression had been created that they were living on the land bought by NBM.Joseph Kauandenge of the Namibia Democratic Movement for Change (NDMC) said almost ten days ago that the “the souls and minds of 3 000 Uis residents were sold to the gates of hell without looking at the immense consequences of such a decision”.He said by signing off on the land, Government had sold its own people to a foreigner “who does not care a hoot about their welfare”.Weitz said he was not a foreigner and had acted within the parameters of the law and had been transparent at all times.He said he was “solely responsible” for preventing the defunct Imkor mine from turning into a ghost town like the nearby abandoned Brandberg-West Mine.