Twenty-year struggle for TransNamib property over

AFTER 20 years of trying, the Grootfontein Municipality finally has permission to put a massive piece of land owned by TransNamib in the centre of the town up for development.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by the two parties on April 23.
Jackpelins Muundjua, Communications Officer for the Grootfontein Municipality, said the property is in a main area on the way to Rundu and is therefore commercially valuable.
He said the process took so long because it had been lost in bureaucratic procedures and staff reshuffles.
Currently TransNamib is using the property, which stretches for about 600 metres along Grootfontein’s main road, as a turning circle for its locomotives.
In order to use the land, the municipality has donated another piece of land to TransNamib to divert its locomotive triangle to.
Town engineer Charles Kariko said several developers have already expressed interest in turning the plot into a shopping mall.
They will lease the property from TransNamib for ‘more than five years’ according to Kariko, which means the final decision on the process will have to be made in Parliament.
He said the whole town would benefit from the new development and firms would soon be canvassed for expressions of interest.
The Chairperson of the Municipality’s Management Committee, Mandume Kawana, said the property would help the municipality attract investors and create jobs for the town’s inhabitants.
The memorandum is the first in a move by TransNamib to make more of its properties available for public-private partnerships.
The acting CEO of TransNamib, Mike Kavekotora, said the municipality should not hesitate to engage TransNamib if they need more unused land belonging to the parastatal.