Housing clients want their money – Amushelelo

… Clients feel “scammed”

Businessman-turned-activist Michael Amushelelo has confirmed that some of the clients of his ‘affordable housing project’ are demanding refunds as the project has been dragging on for four years.

Amushelelo advertised a housing project at Brakwater from 2021 – an initiative to build 150 unserviced plots and affordable houses for middle-income earners who find it difficult to acquire home loans.

But this appears to be a pipe dream for a man who is facing an ongoing court case involving 365 charges for running a Ponzi scheme he was allegedly involved in.

Through the scheme he allegedly solicited money from members of the public who were lured by promises of high returns on their investments.

Now Amushelelo is facing another complaint from members of the public who pumped their money into his housing scheme, called Property Group Save Namibia.

The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation last week quoted a prospective buyer in Property Group Save Namibia, Rakkel Amunwe, who said she has been paying a fee for a plot on a yearly basis.

So far there has, however, been no development in terms of housing.

“I really feel scammed,” she said.

“Year in, year out I am paying my money, but then I am not seeing the progress. Since 2022 we have been promised that we would move into these houses, or every five months we have been promised the construction would start, but then we started getting worried, because this construction is not starting any time,” Amunwe said.

Amushelelo’s property development project requires applicants to pay a deposit of N$60 000, which is payable in monthly instalments, but four years since its launch, no housing has been developed.

Amunwe said she has been having a hard time getting hold of Amushelelo to set up a meeting.

Amushelelo yesterday told The Namibian the delay in the project is due to the City of Windhoek delaying its approval. The first issue the city had involved roads for the project, he said.

“They said we had to make the roads bigger, and this meant we had to reduce our plot sizes, and we did that. Secondly, there was the issue of sewage disposal. We are stuck at the sewage issue,” he said.

Amushelelo said he has been asking the municipality to make use of the Ujams wastewater treatment project in the area for waste disposal, but the municipality was not forthcoming on this.

He said he has been trying to meet with city officials to discuss the possibility of using the Ujams facility.

“Because it has been back and forth, some of our clients have become frustrated and have asked for refunds, so we have started refunding some of them,” Amushelelo said.

“There are people working with the city on other property development projects and they are afraid of the potential of this project, because it would undermine other existing projects.

“But despite the bureaucracy, we are going to persevere until this project becomes a reality,” he said.

CHARGED FOR QUITTING

Another prospective buyer, Susan Agustinus, was quoted by the NBC news as saying clients are charged a fee of 25% when they want to terminate their project contracts.

“They are charging us 25% of the money that we paid. The reason we are withdrawing (from the project) is because of their lack of commitment and their inconsistency, and now we have to pay for their delay,” she said.

Agustinus said she should have been refunded after 35 days of expressing the intention to withdraw from the project, but this is now being delayed.

“Now they are delaying me again and telling me I should wait until 30 April for further development, which doesn’t even stipulate if I would get my money on that particular day,” she said.

Property Group Save Namibia is run by Amushelelo and Gregory Cloete.

In February, The Namibian reported that Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, who served as a consultant for the company, has cut ties with the project due to his political commitment to presidential candidate Ally Angula’s campaign.

An official at the City of Windhoek’s town planning division this week confirmed that the city has received an application from the project, but said some issues are to be resolved, and the project remains under evaluation.