Martin Endjala
About 714 landless residents of Walvis Bay on Tuesday applied for land with the municipality to purchase Portion 23 of Farm 37.
This is the second time that residents have attempted to apply for land in masses at Walvis Bay.
In 2015, over 10 000 residents applied for land at Walvis Bay and Swakopmund under the mass land application that was led by the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement.
A group of residents known as Walvis Bay Backyard Tenants led Tuesday’s group.
The group leader, Festus Immanuel, explained that the residents who applied for land on Tuesday are those who did not benefit from the last allocation on Portion 19 of Farm 37.
“We managed to help register 714 people, and most of them were those who did not benefit from the previous application of land for Portion 19. Because it could only absorb 680 members. These people are about 1 000 something, but at least we managed to help them today, and others will follow suit,” he said.
To ensure no resident is left out, Immanuel said the municipality will receive more applications.
According to a letter seen in this publication dated 8 July, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development has granted approval to the council to allow for the purchase of Portion 19 by the Walvis Bay Backyard Tenants Group.
“The honourable minister, in terms of Section 30(1) (t) read together with Section 63 (2) (b) of the Local Authority Act No. 23 of 1992 as amended, granted approval for Council to sell the immovable property to the applicant,” read the letter.
On 26 March, at an ordinary council meeting, it was resolved that the Walvis Bay Backyard Tenants group purchase Portion 19 of Farm 37.
Portion 19 has a size of 464 754 square metres and is valued at over N$2.3 million.
Walvis Bay Trevino Forbes told the group leaders to engage the council on behalf of the residents and not to march in such huge groups, as this defeats the purpose of dialogue.
“When we want things, we should not force them; we are aware of the land issues, and this is why the council decided to service Farm 37 to allocate land to the people, but we must do it in an orderly manner and allow the council to address issues affecting the residents,” he said.
He informed the group that the municipality is already working on other applications and will concentrate on the new ones after finishing the old ones.
He urged calm and promised to resolve the residents’ problems amicably.
The municipality also granted land at Farm 37 to a group of fishermen earlier this year.
The Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) also received land on the farm for its members.
