Single quarters to make way for development

THE Keetmanshoop Town Council is planning to demolish the single quarters area containing 16 housing units.

This is despite the concerns of tenants, many of them senior citizens, who are paying low rent.

The council in a press statement issued on Tuesday announced it had resolved to demolish the single quarters at Tseiblaagte to redevelop the area.

Council spokesperson Dawn Kruger said the present state of the single quarter housing units posed a health risk to tenants and residents of the area.

“There are currently 16 families living in the single quarters units, with extensive squatter arrangements behind the formal units,” she said.

Kruger said the council resolved to offer the affected tenants – many of them former council employees – plots in the extension one area at a discounted price of N$30 per square metre.

She said the council has been approached by D&K Builders with a housing project proposal, and the parties had signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of low-cost houses and the sale of at least 16 of the housing units to the affected tenants.

This may facilitate the speedy development of housing for the affected tenants, Kruger said.

She said affected tenants are under no obligation to make use of this offer and may opt to build their own houses.

The Namibian spoke to some tenants who said they are not against redevelopment plans, but feared they won't be able to build decent structures on the plots offered by the council.

“I am worried about moving from a decent house to a shack,” said former council employee Simon Amutenya (67).

He said he does not have money to build a unit similar to the one he has lived in for the past 25 years.

“If they want us to move, instead of offerring just plots, they must build us low-cost houses,” Amutenya said.

Lydia Kubas, another tenant, confirmed some tenants won't be able to build a brick house on the plots the council is offering.

“If the council is unable to provide us with decent houses, some of us will be taken back to a life of shacks, where one uses bush toilets,” she said.