THE property department in the City of Windhoek has cancelled the sale of a N$19,6 million plot initially allocated to academic-cum-property developer Tjama Tjivikua, for failing to pay for it on time.
“He did not respond to questions SMSed to him yesterday”.
The decision to cancel the sale of the plot to Tjivikua and 14 other massive tracts of land has, however been rejected by the academic, some executives and politicians, who want those who failed to pay to be given a second chance.
Tjivikua confirmed to The Namibian yesterday that he is challenging the decision by the property division to cancel his land deal. He declined to comment further, referring all the questions to his lawyer.
One of the executives backing Tjivikua is the city ‘s chief legal adviser, Ben Ngairorue, who has been accused by fellow city officials of giving special treatment to politically-connected land seekers. has learnt that Ngairorue is also being accused of having a conflict of interests since one of the plots whose sale was cancelled by the property division was originally allocated to a company belonging to his wife.
About 15 companies had their land deals cancelled by the city ‘s property department this year, but the Swapo dominated management committee rejected the decision by the property division.
This appears to be a blatant tactic by some politicians and executives to protect certain people who fail to pay for the plots on time, while poor residents are pushed aside in a blink of an eye when they accumulate arrears.
One of the deals that is under scrutiny involves Waterberg Investment, a company owned by Namibia University of Science and Technology vice chancellor Tjivikua.
Waterberg Investments was allocated a plot worth N$19,6 million in Khomasdal in November 2014.
Tjivikua, one of the country ‘s top paid parastatal executives, failed to pay for the land within the 90 days stipulated in council rules.
The property department cancelled the sale agreement this year and Tjivikua challenged the decision.
Tjivikua is not new to controversial land deals. He got a Public Private Partnership deal in 2014 to get land measuring 55 hectares in Rocky Crest Extension Five through his company called Waterberg Investment.
He also wants land measuring 90 000 square metres in Kleine Kuppe which he applied for using a partnership with fellow well-connected businessmen.
Ngairorue did not respond to SMSes sent to him since last week, but sources said the municipality ‘s legal boss has sided with councillors and the mayor ‘s office, in a recent move to stop the city ‘s property department from enforcing the cancellation clause on land seekers who failed to pay for the land within the stipulated period.
Municipal sources said Ngairorue recently wrote a legal opinion stating that the property department has no mandate to cancel sale agreements with land seekers without the authority of the management committee – a position contested by sources in the department.
Municipality sources questioned why Ngairorue was allowed to get involved in the cancelled land deals as it was clearly a case of conflict of interests. One of the companies, Adaptic Investment, owned by his wife Claudia Ngairorue, also had its sale agreement for a plot worth N$260 000 in Katutura cancelled by the City of Windhoek.
reported that the stand-off regarding the cancellation of sale agreements started after the council and its management committee decided to reverse a decision by the property department to cancel agreements for the sale of 65 plots sold at the 2014 Academia auction, worth over N$65 million.
Municipal sources told that the reversal order was issued after the politically connected protested about the prospects of losing their plots.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Joshua Amukugo issued a media statement disputing the reports, saying that the municipality had been inundated with challenges to cancellations of sales of erven, either bought on tender or through auctions.
“After due consideration of the procedures followed, and legal opinions from colleagues outside the city, it came to light that the cancellations were done without the authority of the management committee, and in some instances, in violation of Article 18 of the Namibian Constitution. It is in that light that these erven were referred back to the department concerned to allow the department an opportunity to follow the correct procedures in these cancellations,” read his statement.
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