70-year queue for houses for poor

NAMIBIA’S 72 898 shack dwellers may have to wait an average of 67,5 years for each of them to get a house at the current rate of construction, and especially if they are trying to settle in Windhoek, the National Assembly has heard.

According to the Deputy Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Kazenambo Kazenambo, it takes the City of Windhoek about five years before anyone applying for a plot of land to settle on permanently is able to do so. Responding to questions from the DTA’s McHenry Venaani in the National Assembly at the end of last week, Kazenambo said Namibia needed to build about 11 000 houses a year to make up for the backlog of housing for 72 898 shack dwellers.Kazenambo said 3 480 applications, representing some 6 440 people, had been made to the City of Windhoek for a piece of land in 2000.By 2005, only 1 071 applicants had received land, leaving 2 960 people standing in the queue.On a national scale, the housing picture did not look much better: over the past five years, his ministry had overseen the construction of 7 415 houses by the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) and the Build-Together Programme.The NHE, it would appear, was less efficient than the Build-Together Programme: in the past five years, the NHE was responsible for building 1 826 houses, an average of 365 houses a year at a total cost of N$278 million so far.In contrast, the Build-Together Programme built 5 589 houses in the same period at a cost of a little over N$96 million, figures supplied by Kazenambo indicated.This has however been dropping off: in 2000, the Build-Together Programme built 1 299 houses at a cost of N$22 million; by 2005, this figure had dropped back to 978 houses built at a cost of N$23,5 million.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587Responding to questions from the DTA’s McHenry Venaani in the National Assembly at the end of last week, Kazenambo said Namibia needed to build about 11 000 houses a year to make up for the backlog of housing for 72 898 shack dwellers.Kazenambo said 3 480 applications, representing some 6 440 people, had been made to the City of Windhoek for a piece of land in 2000.By 2005, only 1 071 applicants had received land, leaving 2 960 people standing in the queue.On a national scale, the housing picture did not look much better: over the past five years, his ministry had overseen the construction of 7 415 houses by the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) and the Build-Together Programme.The NHE, it would appear, was less efficient than the Build-Together Programme: in the past five years, the NHE was responsible for building 1 826 houses, an average of 365 houses a year at a total cost of N$278 million so far.In contrast, the Build-Together Programme built 5 589 houses in the same period at a cost of a little over N$96 million, figures supplied by Kazenambo indicated.This has however been dropping off: in 2000, the Build-Together Programme built 1 299 houses at a cost of N$22 million; by 2005, this figure had dropped back to 978 houses built at a cost of N$23,5 million.* John Grobler is a freelance journalist; 081 240 1587