Government resumes mass housing programme

The government is planning to resume its mass housing programme following delays caused by legal challenges.

During a construction site visit in Windhoek this week, Ministry of Urban and Rural Development executive director Nghidinua Daniel said the programme was delayed by legal challenges, but is to be resumed.

“As a committed government, we have dedicated ourselves to completing this project. There were temporary hiccups with the legislative aspects and as a country that is led by law, we had to allow the due process of the law to take place,” he said.

Daniel said the focus of the housing programme will be specifically in Windhoek and at Swakopmund and Opuwo.

He said the government has allocated N$90 million to complete 362 housing units in Windhoek.

The government is in the early stages of working with the building contractor New Era Investment to complete 186 partially constructed houses at Swakopmund.

Meanwhile, at Opuwo bids are being evaluated to appoint a contractor for the completion of 24 homes.

This comes after former president Hifikepunye Pohamba raised concern over the delays facing his signature N$48-billion housing project, through which 185 000 houses were meant to be built by 2030.

“I have come here personally and invited you to see that work has indeed resumed,” the minister of urban and rural development, Erastus Uutoni, said during the site visit.

“We are committed to make sure these houses are occupied,” Uutoni said.

By 2023, a total of 4 200 housing units had been built and handed over under the programme.

The mass housing project was intended for low-income families to purchase homes at subsidised prices, depending on buyers’ income brackets.