City refers land sale to urban minister for decision

WINDHOEK, 06 APR – The City of Windhoek (CoW) Council will ask the Minister of Urban and Rural Development to make a decision on a Kleine Kuppe plot sale which was allocated to an applicant without a selling price.
The decision was taken during the monthly council meeting here on Wednesday.
The allocation of Erf 174 in that suburb to a land applicant known as Selma Petrus in 2016 by way of private treaty, was placed in local newspapers for public objections.
However, it was later established a purchase price was omitted when the objection notice was published, thus a second notice for objections was placed in the local media in 2017.
The council received six objections from public members, but resolved to approve the sale of the 1 000 square metre erf worth N.dollars 1 378 000.
The public objections included that the CoW was inconsistent in its allocation of land and that some individuals; friends, family members and associates, were treated special by getting land in high income areas without going through the tender or offer to purchase processes.
The objections also stated that some applicants applied for erven in the past four years but were still waiting for approval, while some applicants were told that single residential properties in the southern suburb were not available through private treaty but rather for single residential land situated in low-income areas.
CoW councillors questioned operations of the City and the whereabouts of land applications that allegedly went missing and why the approval of the plot in Kleine Kuppe was not properly executed.
“The internal process of the City when it comes to implementation is cumbersome. There is a need to overhaul our processes inside, because by the time our term [as councillors] comes to an end, you will realise that nothing was done to impact our people,” Councillor Joseph Kauandenge said.
He said the system in the municipality continue to hamper progress in delivering services to its clients and thus needed to be fixed.

NAMPA