Erasmus Shalihaxwe
A total of 1 065 applications were received and processed after the Khomas regional council office advertised that 14 farms with a total of twenty-four farming units were made available to the National Resettlement Programme.
This was announced by Khomas regional governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua on Monday during a State of the Region address.
“Out of the applications received, only two applicants were successfully allotted farming units for resettlement purposes,” she said.
The regional council has also managed to acquire another farm during the 2023/2024 financial year for resettlement purposes.
The farm is not yet advertised for allocation to the public.
The governor has also declared that the current drought is severely affecting the 1 206 farms in the Khomas region and the Windhoek rural constituency in particular.
“The government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, is supporting the drought-affected farmers by implementing a livestock support intervention of subsidised activities, such as livestock marketing, lease of grazing, fodder and transport to and from grazing areas. In this regard, a total of 156 applicants were received and processed,” she said.
While highlighting some of the challenges the region is facing, she said the target to service land of 700 erven was not achieved due to a lack of funds.
Only 88 erven were serviced in Kleine Kuppe, while the remainder of the erven is carried over to the next financial year.
“The target for construction of houses under the Windhoek Housing Programme, formally the Council Housing Programme, was 60 houses. A total of 8 houses were constructed in Khomasdal to test the approach and take lessons. The remaining 52 houses were not constructed due to a lack of funds,” she alluded.
McLeod-Katjirua further added that during the 2023/2024 financial year, the Khomas regional police took part in various national crime prevention operations as well as regional operations such as Operation Rirongera, Basadi, and Festive Season.
“During the said operations, at least 535 liquor outlets were visited, and 203 bars were closed due to non-compliance with the Liquor Act. Individual suspects were arrested for violating various laws, such as the Liquor Act, and various offences were executed in relation to GBV,” she informed.
