A land activist in Arandis who has petitioned the town council several times seeking fast track land delivery has told Eagle FM that at one time authorities had to call security on them when all they wanted was to talk about when their grievances would be heard.
Petrus Hoaeb said despite numerous petitions and applications, land continues to be sold to private companies and individuals much to their frustration.
Engagement with the authorities started from as far back as 15 years ago, he said.
“We were told that we should pay N$100 to get an application form and those application forms we do not know where they went,” he said in a telephonic conversation on the Early morning Scoop.
“Then came the N$20 to pay for forms and I do not know whether that was a tactic to get revenue from the residents and until today nobody has been answered,” he said.
He said a November-December petition delivered two years ago was only responded to two weeks ago.
He said at a meeting with the Arandis Town Council Chief Executive Officer, they were told that if they wanted some of the excess land in the jurisdiction, they had to fork out more than $N20 million.
He said this is the impediment that has been thrown their way while the land issue will likely be high on the agenda ahead anticipated regional council and local authority elections.
But the CEO, Stanley Norris, stressed that the land problem of the town council has been aggravated by poor budget allocations from government which fall way below the ideal case scenario of a land-delivery capital budget.
He said they have now resorted to PPPs to raise revenue and beef up these allocations.
“I am going to sketch the scenario for you so that you can understand it. So usually when we look at the development of land and the development of an extension, an extension is approximately 250 erven.
So, to develop an extension, costs for water, energy and the sewerage portion of the services it is approximately N$14 million, and you need to input roads as well and that is N$5 million and N$8 million for tarred roads. So, the development of an extension will cost you about N$23 million,” he said.
Capital budget have fallen short with that of 2018/19 being N$1 million, 2019/20 N$8 million and for 2021 it is N$5million.
They have been asking for N$25million.
“Government has been under a lot of strain, he said.
Youth activist, Erastus Nangamba says they can not wait any further citing that unspecified action would be taken soon.
Norris too expressed that the situation presents a possibility of land grabs as happened in Okahandja a few weeks ago.
The case is now in the courts.
“If you happen n to oppress a person for a long time, they will be a time when that person will not mind about what is the next action she or he will take and consequences. We will not worry about consequences and we mean business,” he said.
