Govt spends N$59m on affordable housing in 19 years

RUTH KAMWITHE urban development ministry has spent over N$59 million constructing 2 284 housing units countrywide since 2000 under the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia.

Deputy director of habitat in the ministry, Noami Simion revealed this last week during a Southern African hub meeting which took place in Windhoek from 14 to 20 March.

Twenty-three Slum Dwellers International (SDI) affiliates from Botswana, eSwatini (Swaziland), Malawi, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and 40 Namibian participants attended the meeting.

The meeting sought ways to make the work of the federations more sustainable as well as enhance efforts of improving people’s lives.

Simion, who is also the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) and the Namibia Housing Action Group board members, said the government decided to provide an annual grant to the federation at independence through the Build Together Programme.

“The government has since recognised the critical role of community-based group saving schemes such as the Shack Dwellers Federation as a viable and sustainable solution to informal settlements and the provision of affordable housing,” said Simion.

First lady Monica Geingos, who attended the meeting, said people must speak the language of humanitarianism to address the housing situation in informal settlements.

“I think what we forget when we look at informal settlements, into slums and we see these shiny zinc boards is that there are people inside,” Geingos said.

Geingos, who is also the patron of the Shack Dwellers Federation, said the issue around informal settlements was not just about decent shelter, but it begins with the challenge of inequality.

The first lady said SDFN’s partners were only meeting the federation halfway.

She was agreeing with a Zambian representative, Joyce Lungu, who said that “people will not help you until you help yourself”.

Standard Bank Namibia’s chief executive Vetumbuavi Mungunda said the bank has a longstanding relationship with the federation, which has allowed members of the federation to bank at a cost-effective rate.

Mungunda also said the bank decided as part of its centenary anniversary in 2015 to invest in housing through the Buy-a-Brick initiative that has since seen about 200 houses built.

The bank, Mungunda further said, discussed the idea of low-cost housing solutions with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to use a new technology that involves the use of mushrooms combined with any biological waste for constructing houses.

RMB corporate social investment chairman Ray Awala who represented the FirstRand Namibia Foundation Trust and its partners–Ohorongo Cement and Pupkewitz Foundation, said the collaboration between the private and public sectors honoured the country’s national development plan about providing decent housing.

The meeting also celebrated the successes of different affiliations and allowed delegates, who meet biannually, to reflect on their challenges with the aim of learning from each other.

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