Construction on the houses Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) last year pledged to build for athletes Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi in Rundu, will commence in the next two weeks.
MTC Corporate Communications Specialist, John Ekongo told Nampa upon enquiry on Wednesday that the building plans of the houses have been approved by the Rundu Town Council.
“We are not at liberty to mention who the contractor is yet but one was appointed already. We were just waiting on the Rundu Town Council to approve the building plans and complete the registration process of the title deeds. Construction will start in a fortnight,” he said.
Athletics coach and mentor to the two sprinting sensations, Henk Botha echoed the same sentiments with Nampa on the sidelines of the celebrations of the Namibia National Day at the Expo 2020 held in Dubai.
Botha said he received a phone call from the management of MTC that construction on the girls’ houses would resume soon.
Last year MTC pledged to build houses valued at N.dollars 300 000 each as part of a lucrative sponsorship deal.
In the same vein the Rundu Town Council gifted the country’s two trailblazing athletes with erven at Rundu after sterling performances at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Mboma competed in the 200 metres setting an Under-20 world record of 21.81 to win silver while Masilingi recorded a personal best of 22.28 to finish sixth.
Meanwhile Mboma became the 200m Diamond League champion and Under-20 world gold medallist.
Botha said Nedbank Namibia has also come on board as well as the Durban Trust Fund and several individuals who contributed money towards the construction of the three-bedroom houses.
The coach said the girls are free to extend their houses in the future if they want to add more rooms as their erven are big enough to accommodate that.
“Both Mboma and Masilingi are excited to become new home owners especially Masilingi because her grandmother is currently struggling with accommodation and needs to be moved urgently from where she is staying now,” Botha said.
Rundu Town Council Chief Executive Officer, Olavi Nathanael confirmed on Wednesday that the building plans have been approved.
The plots that were handed over to the girls last year are located near the University of Namibia.
Both Mboma and Masilingi told this agency that they were excited and could not wait for the houses to be completed.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
