Govt to buy Mix for N$5m

GOVERNMENT will soon sign a N$5 million agreement with a Deputy Minister, a Cabinet Secretary and a family owning parts of the Mix squatter camp near Brakwater to officially resettle around 3 000 people there.

Cabinet Secretary Frans Kapofi confirmed that the company in which he owns shares, Eluwa Lya Tenda Property, as well as Local Government Deputy Minister Kazenambo Kazenambo and the Mbundu family have struck a deal with Government.’We have offered it and it’s going to go. We are at the beginning of an end to the Mix problem and will be signing the agreement very soon,’ Kapofi told The Namibian.He owns 57 hectares of land while Kazenambo has another share of 29 hectares.Kapofi bought the land for N$320 000 in 2003 while Kazenambo got his for around N$150 000 in 2000.Kazenambo had, in the meantime, cut up his section of the land and sold three portions of five hectares each for N$2 million to George and Bertha Mbundu, among others.Insight magazine reported recently that a local bank confirmed that five-hectare plots around Brakwater were sold for as much as N$1 million in 2006 and N$1,7 million by the middle of last year, despite the collapse in global housing prices.That would mean that Kazenambo will receive roughly N$800 000 for 10 hectares – a bit lower than the market prices.Kapofi put a N$4 million price tag on his land while Kazenambo wanted N$1,1 million and the Mbundu family N$1,07 million.Kapofi confirmed that the land will be sold to the City of Windhoek although Kazenambo’s Ministry will pay for it.Although he said that they ‘offered’ the land to the Government, others claimed that it was the first expropriation of black-owned land.The 3 000 residents of Mix requested Government to expropriate the land after the High Court granted the owners permission in December 2007 to evict them.They wrote to the Ministry of Local Government and the City of Windhoek, through the Legal Assistance Centre, appealing that either of the two institutions expropriate the plot in public interest.The community claimed that they had tried to buy the land from the owners since March 2004, but their offer was never considered at all.In February 2007 and May 2007, that offer was repeated, but without receiving any response.The LAC had argued that evicting the people would result in serious social and economic hardship and no suitable alternative accommodation can be arranged for them at short notice.Many of the community members have lived on the property for the past 20 years and many others were born there.The previous owner, Heiner Mix, had allowed the people to live on the property since 1980 in return for a nominal rent. He died in 1999 and the property was then sold to Kazenambo and Eluwa Lya Tenda Property, who informed the residents that any such agreement was terminable by ‘reasonable notice’.christof@namibian.com.na