NC comes to defence of home owners

THE National Council (NC) yesterday instructed one of its standing committees to investigate the legality of an old South African law which for years has been blamed for scores of Namibians being evicted from their homes.

The Magistrates’ Act of 1944, and more specifically Section 66 (1) (a) of that act, provides for the attachment of a person’s immovable property in cases where people are unable to honour a monetary judgement and lack sufficient movable property to satisfy such judgement.
NC Vice-Chairperson Margaret Mensah-Williams argues that the law is unconstitutional in terms of Government’s responsibility towards the welfare of its citizens (Article 95) and the individual’s right to property (article 16).
The controversial stipulation has already been changed in South Africa, after it was tested during two court cases in 2003.
The current situation in South Africa is that the court is now only allowed to order a house sale in execution after calling in the debtor and considering his or her circumstances.
‘Despite our democratic constitution, some unfortunate members of our society are on a daily basis being evicted from their homes pursuant to sales in execution of judgement orders against immovable property arising from outstanding instalments involving paltry and trifling sums of money,’ Mensah-Williams said in the council yesterday.
She requested a review of Section 66 of the Magistrates’ Act to ascertain whether it ‘violates the letter or the spirit of the Constitution’.
Her motion was accepted and the Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs was appointed to work on it.
The NC accepted a second motion proposed by Mensah-Williams yesterday, namely to have its Standing Committee on Regional Development investigate the administration of home loans by financial institutions.
In particular, it should examine whether many of the additional charges being added to home loan accounts, which are not provided for in the Usury Act, are legal or not.
In addition to the principal debt – the cost of a house – the Usury Act specifies only stamp duties, insurance for structural damage and insurance for loss of income as additional costs.
‘What we see on the housing market tells us a different story,’ Mensah-Williams said.
‘There are various additional charges that attract interest at prime rate which are heaped onto the bond account. This as a result makes houses unaffordable to would-be home owners, and (leads) to a failure by current home owners to pay instalments, leading to repossession of houses by various financial institutions through our court system,’ she said.
The issue, she said, is even more of a concern now, with Namibia heading for a recession.
‘Many of our people qualify to purchase houses on the face value with incentives from employers, but they cannot afford to pay instalments in the long run after the addition of various other charges,’ the Khomasdal North councillor said.
She said financial institutions had the upper hand over individual home owners because they could afford lawyers.