‘Com-rates’ cause uproar in Parliament

GOVERNMENT is selling hundreds of vacant houses to get money to build new houses for lower-earning civil servants that they can afford to maintain.

Works and Transport Minister Helmut Angula gave this explanation after Government’s sale of empty houses drew fierce criticism from both the opposition and Swapo during the budget debate in Parliament on Tuesday night.After a flood of questions ranging from why the houses are sold when accommodation is already scarce, to who benefits from the sale, Angula said many of the civil servants can’t afford the upkeep of Government houses.’This prompted the decision to alienate the houses,’ he said.Building houses that are cheaper to maintain will solve the problem, he believes.The Police will be the first to move into the new houses, Angula promised.Next in the firing line was the prices and conditions at which these houses are sold and to whom. Mutterings about ‘com-rates’ – rates for comrades – accompanied these questions.Angula said it is Government policy that the civil servant living in a house has the option to buy it at a rate that ‘is not fully commercial’. If he or she declines, then any other civil servant can buy it. If there is still no interest, the general public is allowed to buy the house.Government has sold 857 houses countrywide since 1998. This earned it N$160,5 million.According to Angula, an average of ten deeds of sale are currently finalised every month.jo-mare@namibian.com.na