Namibia’s property ‘golden girl’

TILENI MONGUDHI, SHINOVENE IMMANUEL and TUTALENI PINEHASSTINA WU arrived in Namibia from China with little more than a suitcase 22 years ago. She was 19 years old then, and had previously only worked as a kindergarten teacher.

Now aged 41, she owns land and buildings in the heart of Windhoek, Rundu, Oshakati, Karibib and Okahandja, and is considered among Namibia’s prime property owners.

Wu and her husband came to Namibia under a government policy designed to attract investment from China.

The Namibian investigated some of Wu’s businesses for the past four years through speaking to people who worked with her, visiting some of her businesses, and going through the publicly available company and deeds documents.

Her empire, estimated to be worth up to N$1 billion, was built from scratch, but with help from political connections and top government officials, as whatever she touched “turned to gold”.

Land reform minister Utoni Nujoma, police inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga, former Okahandja mayor Valerie Aron and councillors in several towns rank among her friends.

Her property holdings include four shopping centres in four towns, a hotel in Windhoek, and two housing developments at Rundu.

Wu – whose real name is Qiaoxia Wu – started small. Government sources said she started making money as an agent facilitating permits and residency papers for Chinese business people. She also set up a ‘China Shop’ in Windhoek.

People familiar with her businesses said Wu then started setting up companies for business people based in China so that by the time they arrived in Namibia, the groundwork would have been laid. Having a business in Namibia makes it easier to get permanent residence status.

Wu obtained Namibian permanent residency on 27 April 2004, documents show. She said she chose Namibia because she heard a lot of good things about it from her husband.

“I was doing mainly an import and export business,” she told in an interview this week.

Wu got her start in the property market in December 2007 when she bought 1,5 hectares from the Oshakati Town Council in northern Namibia, where she built the Etango Shopping Complex. Municipal sources said the property is now estimated to be worth more than N$41 million.

She then set her sights on the north-eastern town of Rundu. In May 2008, she bought a one-hectare plot to built the Galaxy Shopping Mall. Now, it is Rundu’s largest shopping complex, housing more than 50 shops.

Wu saw other opportunities to acquire property at Rundu. She saw a gap in the housing market at the town, and took advantage of it.

Acting Rundu council chief executive Sikongo Haihambo confirmed to The Namibian this month that Wu owns or is represented in at least four projects, including the N$38 million Galaxy Shopping Mall.

The others are Rainbow Housing Development, comprising 251 houses; a hotel development through Cross Century Properties; and a 550-house project at Kaisosi on the outskirts of Rundu, which falls under the At Helmsman Group.

Controversy surrounds land she bought from the Rundu Town Council after then mayor Gosbert Mandema and his former deputy, Hilka Leevi, went on an all-expenses-paid trip to China in 2010.

A title deed search shows that Wu bought a 3 500 square metre plot from the council in 2011 for N$17 000 – or N$5 a square metre. Other developers at Rundu said at the time, the market price was N$20 a square metre, meaning the land ordinarily would have cost N$70 000.

In 2012, according to media reports, Wu paid for another trip to China for top Rundu officials, including the then new chairperson of the management committee, Johannes Murenga.

Leevi, who was also part of the second group, told The Namibian in 2012 that the officials visited the port city of Xiamen and Sanming City in Fujian province, where Wu was born.

She denied there was anything improper about the trips, saying they were aimed at attracting investment from China.

In July 2012, a few months before the second China trip, Wu bought a 17-hectare plot at Rundu for N$870 000 with the aim of constructing the Rundu Rainbow Village.

Property deeds seen by The Namibian show that Wu divided the land into more than 200 plots for housing. She then sold ready-built houses for N$350 000, raking in more than N$70 million.

The Ever-Lasting Iron Sheet Investment Close Corporation, which she owns, bought 5 100 square metres of municipal land for N$200 000 in June 2011 with the intention of setting up a roof sheeting and brickmaking factory.

A report of an urban ministry investigation conducted in 2014, which was seen by The Namibian, alleged that Wu bought several municipal plots in Okahandja for N$4 a square metre. Residents normally paid N$15 a square metre then.

The ministry also alleged that she was awarded two plots without applying for them.