AR’s Goreangab plots still being serviced five years later

OGONE TLHAGE

WINDHOEK

Land that the Affirmative Repositioning movement proposed for mass housing in Windhoek’s Goreangab informal settlement as part of a deal struck with State House on 27 July 2015 is still being serviced.

The land in question is situated alongside Green Mountain Road in the informal settlement.

Providing an update, the executive director in the ministry of urban and rural development, Nghidinwa Daniel, said the area in question was rocky, which caused the servicing delay.

“The land is still being serviced, but the other land in Walvis Bay and Oshakati, where specific areas were identified, have been serviced and houses have been delivered,” he said.

Daniel further explained that the ministry uses money under its capital budget to service land.

“Our programme did not start in 2015; our capital budget has always been for land servicing,” he said.

According to him, of the land identified in Oshakati, other sites in the northern town were also being serviced. For Windhoek, he pointed out that it was only Windhoek’s Goreangab site that was lagging behind.

Land deal

The government struck a deal with AR in 2015 for the mass servicing of land.

The agreement was reached a few days ahead of the 31 July deadline that had been set by the land movement for the government to make available urban land for housing.

“On a pilot project basis, government will start by servicing identified land in the following towns: Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Oshakati,” prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila announced after the meeting.

It was also announced that the government would immediately embark on a programme to service 200 000 plots of land countrywide, and that the period between 29 July and 5 August would be used to clear urban land identified to be serviced.