Okongo land leased, not given away

LAND at Okongo settlement has been leased to Chinese businessman Michael Chen for development, Ohangwena chief regional officer (CRO) Daniel Kashikola said at a meeting on Tuesday.

The meeting with all concerned parties was called after residents complained about the ‘sale’ of land to a Chinese company, saying legal procedures were not followed.A cellphone text message has been doing the rounds since last Monday, alleging that two high-ranking officials of the Ohangwena Regional Council, a Police officer at Okongo and a senior Swapo official had pocketed about N$1,5 million from the ‘sale’.Okongo constituency councillor Paulus Mwahanyekange,who was implicated in the rumour, on Monday told The Namibian that the land had been given to Chen ‘free of charge’ to develop into a shopping mall.’That land is government land and was given to the Chinese businessman free of charge. No payment was made whatsoever,’ Mwahanyekange said. In the meantime, the Namibian National Students’ Organisation (Nanso), claimed that it had bought the land from the Okongo Traditional Authority in the early 1990s to use for youth development projects.Ndumbu said the current deputy mayor of Oshakati, Katrina Shimbulu, who at the time was a member of Nanso, was instructed by the movement to take care of the land. However, CRO Kashikola told the meeting that the land has been leased to Chen at N$321 per month for 20 to 99 years.The meeting was attended by representatives of Nanso, Namrights, the Police, the Ohangwena Regional Council, Okongo headman Lukas Holongo, and Chen.Kashikola said Chen, although of Chinese origin, was a Namibian citizen and that the land did not belong to anyone else.With regard to Nanso’s ownership claim, Headman Holongo told the meeting that he only knew the land as belonging to Katrina Shimbulu – and not Nanso – and that she had abandoned many years ago.According to traditional laws, land is forfeited to the traditional authority if a person abandons it for three years, he said.Ndumbu said Nanso was not happy with that and would consider legal action.