MEMBERS of the Grootfontein community are up in arms against the way the municipality has planned to sell residential land.
The disagreement is so intense that an information sharing meeting held at the town hall on Wednesday came to an abrupt end when the parties failed to find common ground.
The meeting took place between Grootfontein acting CEO Martin Le Roux, the city’s finance manager, Ileni Hainghumbi, and leaders representing various communities.
The meeting ended when Le Roux and Hainghumbi walked out after the community leaders allegedly wanted to know why the municipality is selling land without consultation, and why the poor in the community are being sidelined.
The community leaders also called on the municipality to put on hold the planned sale of the land, which comprises 152 plots.
The municipality reserved 108 plots for residential purposes while the remaining 44 are intended for business and industrial purposes.
Members of the community accused the municipality of favouring wealthy outsiders over needy residents.
According to sources, at least 28 of the plots will be sold on closed tender, meaning that people are required to submit bids.
Residents also expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that the 80 plots available on private treaty are too expensive, while the municipality is not putting them on the beneficiaries list for the Build Together programme or the new mass housing project.
The Namibian has seen a letter from one of the community leaders, Johann Dewaldt !Howaeb, dated 2 December addressed to Le Roux.
In the letter, !Howaeb makes it clear that President Hifikepunye Pohamba said local authorities must “refrain from all issues regarding sale of residential erven on private treaties and tender processes because the aim of the recently launched Mass Housing Project through the Ministry of Regional, Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, will be to directly benefit residents of Grootfontein in particular”.
“Is the council helping people or causing a financial burden on the community by selling this land at very high prices,” read !Howaeb’s letter.
He also demanded to know how the plots were serviced – whether they were serviced by the municipality or they were serviced using funds allocated under the Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (Tipeeg) programme, which was supposed to reduce municipal land prices because government was funding the servicing of land.
Hainghumbi told The Namibian last week that the meeting took place and ended because some people wanted to discuss issues, which were apparently not part of the agenda.
He further said the meeting was aimed at sharing information with community leaders and that the sale of the properties has nothing to do with Build Together programme or the mass housing initiative. The plots, he further explained, are aimed at encouraging first time buyers who are employed to own houses at the town.
Hainghumbi added that those properties being sold on closed tender will not be for the highest bidder but that the municipality will find a median between the highest and the lowest bidder, while others are for higher income residential areas.
He further said these would not affect the poor residents of the town, some of whom are said to be too poor to pay N$100 for application forms.
If they cannot afford a N$100 for an application form, Hainghumbi asked, how will they be able to build and maintain a house?
He claimed that just a few people were trying to sabotage the town’s development, and that it was the same group of people opposed to the construction of a N$17 million shopping mall at the town.
“We are going forward to develop the town. We will not succumb to those who want to block development,” he said, adding that now that the mall is under construction, it has already started bringing jobs to people of the town.
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