Brakwater residents lay bare woes

FOR most residents of Brakwater, the new rates and taxes imposed on them by the City of Windhoek last year were the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Apart from the fact that the city imposed 3000% to 5000% increases in rates and taxes, other factors such as crime, lack of infrastructure such as roads and proper network lines, have been adding up to their frustrations over the years.

As a result, most of them are considering selling their plots, but the developments they made on the plots have pushed the land value so high that few people can afford to buy them.

Estelle Myburgh (54) who has been living at Brakwater north since 1981 after her parents had purchased a plot in the area, said no matter how much they invested in technology to keep safe, it never helped.

“It used to be like a farm here. It is completely different now. The crime rate has increased, and we are now considering selling the property and move to Windhoek. My mother is 81 years old, and it is not safe for her to be left here alone,” explained Myburgh.

She said on top of the high crime rate, the city’s decision has almost tripled their monthly bill from less than N$2 000 to N$12 000.

“We actually only needed to pay less than N$200, but we chose to pay N$2 000 so that we would not be in debt with our bills. But now N$12 000! It is ridiculous, my mother is a pensioner. They cut our water supply, and now we are using borehole water,” added Myburgh.

She said their electrical fence and borehole cables were cut several times, and on top of that, she had a car accident because of the lack of maintenance of the roads.

“If we get proper services, sewage or refuse removal and proper roads, we would be willing to pay the new rates,” noted Myburgh. A well-known Brahman breeder, Hueston Groenewaldt (38), who has lived at Brakwater since 2011, said their bill went up from N$500 to N$8 000 per month.

“For the first three or four years, it was fine living there until the crime started rising later on. It went so far that we built a wall to protect our property, but this did not prevent the theft at the house. Our gate motors keep being stolen each time we buy a new one. So, for the past few months, we have been putting chains on our gate,” narrated Groenewaldt.

The father of two said his wife protests strongly when he travels to his farm or other place because then they would be left alone and vulnerable.

“We are really fed up. It is no longer safe for our family to stay here. We are putting our plot up for sale, but the problem is that we have invested so much that we won’t be able to recoup all that money because no one wants to stay here. We will have to sell at a reduced price,” said Groenewaldt.

Andre Brits, who runs the Brakwater District Watch in the area, said most people who live there are pensioners, and some have now abandoned their properties to live in Windhoek.

He added that this was because they could no longer put up with the crime, in addition to the city’s new rates and taxes.

Brits stressed that the lack of proper roads and the fact that there has been no street naming in the area has made it worse for those looking for emergency services such as ambulances or the police.

Brits took on a drive around the Brakwater community’s mountainous area, including the valley, where most people live.

He said Brakwater, which was initially a farming area, had received no development funds from the City of Windhoek, and it remained up to the residents to built some roads as well as fix their water and electricity supply lines.

The chairperson of the Brakwater Advisory Committee (BAC), Bert Laaser, observed that the residents have been paying additional money towards the city’s 7,5% endowment fee since 2004 for the development of their community, but none has been made since then.

The city charges an endowment fee to those who want to subdivide their erven, and this means the municipality is entitled to 7,5% of the value of each of the subdivided plot.

The BAC was set up in 2000 as the official communication forum between the city and the residents of Brakwater.

The ground rates in the area went up from N$28, 67 per month to N$960 per month, and improvement rates went from N$48,76 to N$401,00 per month. Additionally, the municipality started charging N$435,29 for waste management.

Most people’s bills rose from around N$600 per month to N$2 000 per month.

The BAC chairperson said the council had approved that the standard endowment fee of 7,5 % in Brakwater be increased to 9% in 2004, and thus accelerate the funding for future infrastructural development of the area.

“In 2004 and 2012, the council instructed that all Brakwater-generated funds (betterment and endowment fees) as from 2004 be ring-fenced with interest, and placed in separate financial votes for the future financing of infrastructure at Brakwater […]. Contrary to the council’s instructions, these funds were not reserved for Brakwater, and were deposited into Windhoek’s funds,” charged Laaser.

He said due to the changing times, the Brakwater community needs roads infrastructure, better networks, as well as crime- fighting and health services.

The City of Windhoek’s spokesperson, Lydia Amutenya, did not respond to questions by late yesterday.

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