Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
LOOKS like those living in shacks in suburban Namibia, which euphemistically are defined by officialdom as informal settlements, not to mention in the rural areas where since the dawn of colonialism, shacks have been the only form of decent housing and settlement, they are here to stay forever.
Telling from the latest push by the administration that has just been ushered in following the inauguration of Meme Netumbo Nandi-Ndeitwah (NNN) as President of the Republic of Namibia on the 35th anniversary of our independence on the 21st of last month. Barely a month after NNN’s announcement of her cabinet, perhaps quick to convince her that they can deliver, ministers have started to pretend that they are hitting the ground running. One aspect in this regard is being in the settlement arena where the push is to formalise and normalise shack areas. Which, in essence, is making the ghettos, where most of the houses and/or the living areas in the informal settlements are permanently acceptable but not necessarily decently habitable.
In this day in an independent Namibia, shacks are not only in selected areas, but with the mushrooming of backyard shacks all over and across the country, Namibia cannot but aptly be described and get the accolade of Shacksland. With the latest push by the in-administration, Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but believe that this is the ultimate in housing in modern-day independent Namibia. Which, for that matter, is a continuity from the previous administration. As the normalisation and formalisation of shacks started with the previous administration, especially in the throes of its end of tenure, towards the end of last year, with attempts to give the initiative the necessary traction.
“The SWAPO Party-led government has maintained its commitment to accelerated land redistribution, addressing housing challenges, and improving sanitation,” states the party in its 2024 election manifesto. “Implement comprehensive and participatory upgrading programmes for informal settlements, focusing on servicing land to ensure the security of tenure and provide access to basic services such as water, sanitation, and electricity,“ the manifesto pledges with regard to the informal settlement. Granted that, as has been shown by the mushrooming of shacks all over the country due to urbanisation, realistically there’s not much any government, especially one that seems to have accepted the capitalist status quo as it has been seeming, can deal with shacks apart from giving them a semblance of decency and acceptability. Hence, the notion of the normalisation of the so-called informal settlements.
This automatically and axiomatically means, as the word denotes, shacks are and shall remain a normal, instead of an abnormal, state of affairs in an independent Namibia, forever if you wish. Because there’s no indication that such an initiative is only an emergency one to deal with the explosive and unabating situations of urban influx. “Focus public expenditure proportionally on priority target groups, and realign state-supported housing provision mechanisms to provide access to adequate housing. Encourage and stimulate private sector investments in adequate housing provision. Establish mechanisms for allocating unoccupied land in urban areas to promote efficient land use and access to housing,” Swapo further envisages in its manifesto. An indication that there may be more to the normalisation of shacks than meets the eye.
But commendable as the Swapo Party programmatic vision may be on addressing the acute lack of houses in the country, this intent would be meaningless unless it is part of a holistic approach, rooted in the structural overhaul of the Namibian economy. Which is capitalist-based and the root cause of the undesirable living conditions the masses of Namibians are engulfed in and condemned to, of which the acute lack of housing is but only one pointer.
Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but note the government envisaged engagement and involvement of the private sector in housing provision initiatives, which is a commendable act for what it is and may yield. Cognisant of the role that commercial banks and institutions especially have been playing in this regard, but with less than desirable and/or helpful yields, to say the least. With mortgage holders subjected to terminal years of loan repayments. A period during which they basically are held hostage to these banks and institutions.
While housing is a basic need, as a means of shelter, the acquisition of a house or means of shelter in Namibia has been tantamount to and treated and viewed as a luxury. Especially by the private sector. That instead of being necessary and perfect partners in the provision of housing, whose approach, more than facilitating access to a basic need, has been profit-orientated and rather a burden to struggling, impoverished and roofless citizens . Not to mention the role of the brokers and intermediaries in the provision of housing, the real estate, who also have been, in a way, a hindrance in accessing ordinary folks to shelters due to the exorbitant prices in the market, marked by the inhibiting cost of renting a roof. Which in turn is pegged to the high cost of land. Hence the necessity for a holistic approach in addressing the shortage of houses in the country. Needless to say, this is a matter requiring the urgent attention of the whole government rather than being left to the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development only, as it may be.
Thus, Yours Truly Ideologically cannot see the formalisation of shacks as a long-term solution, if altogether a non-starter, in addressing the acute shortage of housing and the backlog. That over the years has been spiralling out of control, offering any government a problem that it has never come forth with a solution to. Besides empty promises.
“Irrespective of the informality of such settlement types, their residents (including forcibly displaced people) should have access to water, sanitation, energy, roads, community spaces, shelter, health, education, food, and livelihoods. Consider if it is more feasible to provide those in situ, by formalising and upgrading the settlement, or if it is more sensible to identify alternative accommodation for the displaced population (collective centres, alternative housing options via hosting arrangements or rental assistance, or, as a last resort, planned settlement),” maintains the United Nations. These go without saying that there is more to the formalisation of the so-called informal neighbourhoods. Electricity and sanitation are and cannot be the end. It goes without saying that there is more to the formalisation of so-called informal neighbourhoods. this age and era of capitalism, something they can market. Shall the shacks in the so-called informal settlements ever become marketable one day?
