Swapo procrastinates on shacks

Swapo think tank chair Andrew Niikondo said shanty towns are here to stay for the foreseeable future; however, government should find ways to change the face of shacks by setting up a trial project.Niikondo and his co-author Herman Shitaleni wrote this in a presentation for the upcoming Swapo policy conference, aimed to set the tone of the party&#039;s development agenda.This is in direct contrast with President Hage Geingob’s dream to have shacks removed off the Namibian landscape by 2024, when he declared the living conditions of informal settlers a humanitarian crisis in 2019. This dream is fading by the day.In 2020, official statistics from the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia indicated that there are about one million Namibians living in shacks across the country.According to Niikondo and Shitaleni’s paper, which contains several proposals on how to deal with the mushrooming of shacks, a new form of informal settlement must be established which is friendly to development and poses minimal health risks.“We recommend that the policy conference resolve to adopt a project trial in the City of Windhoek and for the Swapo Party to direct government to acquire land for the purpose of this housing and improved sanitation, municipal services and standards of living project,” the paper read.Let them workMeanwhile, another think tank member Uazuva Kaumbi believes informal settlements should be formalised so that dwellers are able to get loans to build decent homes.He also wants government to fast track the servicing of land in urban areas and townships to smoothen the formalisation process.“I recommend coordinated interventions of the central government, regional and local authorities to boost delivery of more housing for low-income and middle-income earners. Also invest in a financial product by the government for the low-income people so that they can build houses,” he said.He argued that it is best to roll out a centralised construction project for sanitation infrastructure and to do away with tender processes, and instead let the informal settlers do the work at their own dwellings in exchange for food.Talk is cheapThe think tank’s recommendations come more than 10 years after Swapo set itself a string of goals to provide decent housing and improve the lives of people living in informal settlements.The ruling party has, however, dismally failed in addressing this issue, with informal settlements since having sprawled across the country and more and more landless and unemployed people flocking to set up a home.Namibians living in informal settlements have been subjected to the worst kinds of conditions, with the perpetual lack of water and sanitation resulting in numerous hepatitis E outbreaks.jemima@namibiansun.com

Swapo procrastinates on shacks

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Namibian Sun 2022-07-06

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Swapo procrastinates on shacks

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Namibian Sun 2022-07-06

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