We were ripped off, poor people say

A GROUP of poor Katutura residents, who parted ways with N$5 000 each after they were promised houses, say they feel cheated by a high-flying developer.

Tony Mbok launched the Dignity Housing Initiative about a year ago, promising poor residents from Katutura suburb that he would build them houses worth between N$50 000 and N$65 000 if they paid a deposit of N$5 000 in addition to a refundable administration fee of N$250. Maria !Ganes, a domestic worker, obtained a loan and paid her N$5 000 to Mbok Investments Company (Minvestco) on March 30 last year.”To date I have not seen my house.Actually, I have not seen that gentleman since then and the numbers I dial are all not in use,” she told The Namibian.Another domestic worker, who wanted to be identified only as Olga, opened a criminal case against Mbok on Tuesday, claiming he refunded her deposit, but the cheque bounced.The Dignity Housing Initiative was launched with some media hype when Mbok declared that his project would build affordable houses in Nubuamis (Windhoek) for people earning between N$800 and N$7 000 a month.The company had acquired 450 000 square metres of land and had announced that Leka Developers of Peter Kavaongelwa would service the land on behalf of Dignity Housing Initiative.Last week, Mbok said the consortium of companies in the project remained committed to it despite reluctance from financial institutions to provide loans for affordable housing.He said the consortium of companies included estate agency Pam Golding, estate agent Helena Mandevhu, Marbex Construction, Stoney Construction, Solbric Namibia and Africon as the engineering firm for the project.The Namibian was unable to confirm independently whether these companies were still involved in the project.”In launching the project last year we had a number of assurances from a local bank that should we satisfy a certain number of conditions they will provide loans for our clients and to the project for the construction of more homes.Numerous meetings were held with top management but to date we have not received confirmation from any financial institution that they will provide end-financing to our clients,” Mbok said.According to Mbok, they have also approached the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) for possible end-financing to their clients, as they hold a Government mandate to provide affordable housing and housing loans to individuals.”So far we have not received a response from NHE despite two meetings between Dignity Housing Administrators and NHE CEO [Vinson Hailulu] and later NHE top management,” he said.He said Dignity Housing Initiative has completed a number of houses at Arandis to present to banks and customers as models and to sell.He said First National Bank had approved their building methods – called solbric and moladi.”The Windhoek building project is seriously delayed but not abandoned, as we wait for financial institutions to come back to us with confirmation that they will provide bonds to our clients.If not, we will build houses for clients who will not have access to bonds,” he said.Mbok said they had gone as far as attempting to register a company called Mortgage Finance as a financial institution providing affordable home loans.They were in talks with a computer company called AFRISOFT to provide the new entity with technical assistance with loan administration software, he said.He said the funds to finance the homes would be solicited from international asset managers for Africa.”We believe in The Namibian newspaper’s responsibility in informing the public but I believe that those people who have approached you have less than honourable objectives meant solely to further diminish our efforts.We are not contractually obliged to refund them just for the asking but we have used our discretion for certain cases to do so,” Mbok said.”The use of The Namibian newspaper as a blackmail instrument to force a refund will not work.We are not doing anything wrong, we are entrepreneurs trying to provide a private-sector solution for a real problem.”He claimed that a large-scale development of affordable houses was seen as killing the market for the banks and thus they were reluctant to finance his project.In the meantime, !Ganes continues hoping that she will recover her money, while Olga has left it in the hands of the Police.Mbok say they must be patient.Maria !Ganes, a domestic worker, obtained a loan and paid her N$5 000 to Mbok Investments Company (Minvestco) on March 30 last year.”To date I have not seen my house.Actually, I have not seen that gentleman since then and the numbers I dial are all not in use,” she told The Namibian.Another domestic worker, who wanted to be identified only as Olga, opened a criminal case against Mbok on Tuesday, claiming he refunded her deposit, but the cheque bounced.The Dignity Housing Initiative was launched with some media hype when Mbok declared that his project would build affordable houses in Nubuamis (Windhoek) for people earning between N$800 and N$7 000 a month.The company had acquired 450 000 square metres of land and had announced that Leka Developers of Peter Kavaongelwa would service the land on behalf of Dignity Housing Initiative.Last week, Mbok said the consortium of companies in the project remained committed to it despite reluctance from financial institutions to provide loans for affordable housing.He said the consortium of companies included estate agency Pam Golding, estate agent Helena Mandevhu, Marbex Construction, Stoney Construction, Solbric Namibia and Africon as the engineering firm for the project.The Namibian was unable to confirm independently whether these companies were still involved in the project.”In launching the project last year we had a number of assurances from a local bank that should we satisfy a certain number of conditions they will provide loans for our clients and to the project for the construction of more homes.Numerous meetings were held with top management but to date we have not received confirmation from any financial institution that they will provide end-financing to our clients,” Mbok said.According to Mbok, they have also approached the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) for possible end-financing to their clients, as they hold a Government mandate to provide affordable housing and housing loans to individuals.”So far we have not received a response from NHE despite two meetings between Dignity Housing Administrators and NHE CEO [Vinson Hailulu] and later NHE top management,” he said.He said Dignity Housing Initiative has completed a number of houses at Arandis to present to banks and customers as models and to sell.He said First National Bank had approved their building methods – called solbric and moladi.”The Windhoek building project is seriously delayed but not abandoned, as we wait for financial institutions to come back to us with confirmation that they will provide bonds to our clients.If not, we will build houses for clients who will not have access to bonds,” he said.Mbok said they had gone as far as attempting to register a company called Mortgage Finance as a financial institution providing affordable home loans.They were in talks with a computer company called AFRISOFT to provide the new entity with technical assistance with loan administration software, he said.He said the funds to finance the homes would be solicited from international asset managers for Africa.”We believe in The Namibian newspaper’s responsibility in informing the public but I believe that those people who have approached you have less than honourable objectives meant solely to further diminish our efforts.We are not contractually obliged to refund them just for the asking but we have used our discretion for certain cases to do so,” Mbok said.”The use of The Namibian newspaper as a blackmail instrument to force a refund will not work.We are not doing anything wrong, we are entrepreneurs trying to provide a private-sector solution for a real problem.”He claimed that a large-scale development of affordable houses was seen as killing the market for the banks and thus they were reluctant to finance his project.In the meantime, !Ganes continues hoping that she will recover her money, while Olga has left it in the hands of the Police.Mbok say they must be patient.