City responds to commonage farms

A City of Windhoek manager has expressed frustration over the failure of the municipality’s technical department to compile a report on the number of commonage farms around Windhoek. This follows a Facebook posting this week by the Affirmative Repositioning movement, claiming that people are leasing between 820 and 6 000 hectares of town land for an average price of N$7 000. According to the municipality’s manager for corporate communications and customer care, Joshua Amukugo, the council gave instruction to have the report compiled two months ago. “We are already at pains with the progress report. We told them again today (Wednesday) to complete the report,” said Amukugo. Kallie Venske, manager of Moltkeblick Game Farm, confirmed the lease agreement with the City but said the land is not suitable for development. Moltkeblick Game Farm is leased for a period of 60 years, of which 42 years remain, at a monthly cost of N$37 738. Trustco Group Holdings, which leases 4 000 hectares of commonage at N$9 764 per month, uses the land for game and livestock farming. Group Managing Director Quinton van Rooyen said Trustco is engaged with various stakeholders to accelerate the provision of serviced and affordable land countrywide. “As a leader of Namibian business innovation since independence, Trustco is committed to keep on doing more of the same. Trustco has a proud reputation of preferring to find solutions to challenges rather than identifying problems,” he said. When contacted for comment Mayor Muesee Kazapua rejected claims by AR that he did not include these farms in the 2 000 hectares of available land that he briefed President Hage Geingob about. Geingob said on Monday during his visit to three pilot sites around Windhoek: “We will be looking around the mountains and might also buy some farms and expropriate if they want to cheat us.” Geingob also challenged young Namibian professionals to prove wrong his belief that they will not volunteer their services for the Massive Urban Land Servicing Project. Following this challenge, Windhoek Consulting Engineers pledged a number of free services to contribute to the servicing of 200 000 plots. These services include the training of government personnel to prepare professional cost estimates for the servicing of designated land. Windhoek Consulting Engineers will also form a consortium consisting of young and vibrant town planners, urban designers and architects to develop a practical land delivery concept. Businessman Ranga Haikali pledged the loan of a bulldozer for land clearance. WINDHOEK JEMIMA BEUKES