Niël Terblanché
More residents of the stretched-out DRC informal settlement in Swakopmund have taken ownership of their own land by signing contracts with the coastal town’s municipality.
The latest batch of 270 land owners of the Wagdaar area of the DRC joined the 708 people who already signed their ownership certificates last month. The certificates will enable the newly minted land-owners to build their own homes through various other initiatives that are working tirelessly to house more Namibians in urban areas.
The provision of adequate housing not only allows Namibians to live with their dignity intact but also enables people to access other aspects of well-being such as improved sanitation facilities and better health conditions.
At the latest signing ceremony, the Mayor of Swakopmund, Dina Namubes, said the eventual delivery of Flexible Land Tenure certificates to the residents of the Wagdaar area of the DRC has been Swakopmund Municipality’s greatest success.
“Just last month, Council completed the process of signing certificates for 708 residents in the DRC and we came back to ensure the ownership of land for 207 more residents in Wagdaar,” she said.
The mayor indicated that the long-term development plan of the Swakopmund Town Council included the servicing of land in the DRC.
She said that the Council appointed a contractor to install bulk services in the extensions that would later be transferred to the new owners.
“This included a relocation process which was initially met with resistance, however, the residents later understood that the new Wagdaar relocation area was properly designed with demarcated erven. Council made provision of basic services such as water standpipes or communal taps, mobile toilets and most recently, streetlights,” the mayor said
She added that the relocation of residents to the Wagdaar area was also a tool to decongest Ext. 31 because it was very overcrowded.
“We recognize the important role that we as the Council have and thus access to land and housing remains our greatest priority. We wish to ensure that the provision of decent shelter is indeed implemented timeously and the allocation of erven in DRC is amongst those,” she said.
Namubes congratulated the beneficiaries who will now become homeowners.
“It is such a wonderful feeling to become a homeowner, a place you can call home. And what was a far-fetched dream has become a reality. I am positive that you build beautiful homes with lovely gardens,” she said.
The mayor urged the newly minted landowners to pay their municipal accounts to enable the municipality to deliver more services to the people.
“As Council, we rely on you as our community members to be self-sustainable and through that, we can service more land and ensure that all Swakopmunders have decent houses with basic services,” Namubes concluded.
The Namibian Government through the National Development Policies, such as NDP 5, the Harambee Prosperity Plan 1 and 2 and Vision 2030, initiated various policy initiatives and continues to allocate resources towards increasing the supply and improved access to affordable urban land, housing and sanitation.
The flexible land tenure system, developed by the Namibian Government in cooperation with other role players and stakeholders, is an excellent vessel utilized to provide people with land to build their own permanent homes.
Some of the recipients of new land-ownership certificates had to wait for almost a quarter of a century to become the rightful owners of their own piece of land.
