Mass housing: Govt pays Nakuumba N$25 million

THE government has agreed to pay N$25 million to end a protracted legal dispute with businessman Titus Nakuumba’s CalgroKuumba Planning and Design, stemming from its flopped mass housing initiative.

The settlement agreement will mark the end of a dispute that lasted four years.

CalgroKuumba Planning and Design was among a handful of politically connected entities to be awarded mass housing contracts.

The entities’ initial 2013 contract involved building 1 200 low-cost houses at Windhoek’s Otjomuise Extension 10, worth N$350 million.

The company only built 360 houses, which have been standing unoccupied since 2017 because they have not been connected to municipal services.

CalgroKuumba is a joint venture between a South African firm, Calgro M3, and Afrikuumba, owned by businessman Titus Nakuumba.

The settlement agreement, a copy of which is in the possession of The Namibian, was drafted on 20 September this year.

The agreement states that the government shall pay a lump sum of N$25 million to CalgroKuumba as a full and final settlement within 90 days after the agreement was signed.

The company dragged the state to court, alleging the government reneged on its agreement.

The contract was suspended in June 2015, while 362 units were in various stages of completion.

This was two years after president Hage Geingob cancelled the mass housing project due to alleged corruption.

The government through the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development then entered into a new building contract with the company in February 2016 to complete the houses started under the suspended contract.

CalgroKuumba has previously said the government owes it around N$40 million and believes that service connections, which the government wanted the company to install, were not part of the deal.

Nakuumba referred questions to the company’s chief executive officer, Andre Olivier.

Olivier says the settlement reached will allow the company to complete the job properly.

“ … it allows for the substantial completion of the 362 units through the installation of inter alia municipal services connections, drying yards, parking, and paving of streets,” Olivier says.

He says the work set to be done would, however, be carried out under a variation order.

Variation orders involve any changes from the scope, plan, specification, or contract document in the construction project.

“Any deterioration of the buildings through vandalism and wear and tear will also be addressed in the process. These improvements will be made under a variation order of the contract and will allow the housing units to be fit for occupation,” he says.

The executive director of urban and rural development, Nghidinwa Daniel, says: “The ministry is a party to the signed settlement agreement. The agreement ends the long legal dispute and paves the way for the project to reach practical completion, and for the houses to be connected to services and be fit for occupation.”

The intention of Namibia’s N$45 billion mass housing initiative was to build 185 000 houses by 2030.

Former president Hifikepunye Pohamba last year said he was not happy that the majority of Namibians do not have decent housing.

“When I was in office, I introduced the mass housing programme and, although there were problems here and there, it was worth continuing. Unfortunately, the administration that followed mine changed it,” he said.

With a housing backlog of 110 000, and statistics showing that at least 900 000 Namibians live in shacks, Pohamba conceded that the government has failed to address the housing crisis over the last 30 years.

The mass housing project was stopped in 2015 amid allegations of irregularities in the tender awarding process, which saw president Hage Geingob call for an audit of the project.

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