The 319 incomplete houses at Swakopmund’s Matutura will be completed in 18 months, with 111 of those envisaged for completion within six months.
This comes after a new tender was awarded to the New Era Construction Investment Company, after over seven years of standing incomplete.
The construction of the houses came to a halt after disputes between the main contractor, Ferusa Capital Financing Partners CC, and its subcontractors, New Era Investments and Desert Paving and Constructions, over non-payment, although the main contractor was paid by Government.
This breach of contract then led to legal disputes from the subcontractors against Ferusa and subsequently from Government against Ferusa.
The houses are part of the 505 incomplete houses which were contracted to Ferusa under the national Mass Housing Development Programme.
Urban and Rural Development Minister, Erastus Uutoni, at the handover of the project to the new contractor here on Tuesday, said the completion of these houses is crucial to the government and residents of Swakopmund as it signifies an end to a challenge.
“We recognise that the houses on this site have been standing incomplete for many years to the dismay of the government at the highest level. Accordingly, Cabinet has directed that the disputes that have been holding up the completion of all the 891 commenced-but-incomplete houses countrywide, must be resolved and the houses be completed and handed over to beneficiaries in the shortest possible time,” Uutoni expressed.
A total 286 of the 319 houses are social houses and will be prioritised for low-income earners and only 33 are for middle to upper-income earners.
The minister added that the rest of the 186 of the total of 505 incomplete houses on this whole site, are still a subject of a dispute and negotiations and in the interest of the public, Government is pursuing an amicable solution and it is hoped that the party concerned exercises reasonableness.
“At the end of the date, the 186 houses have to be completed and handed over to our needy people, and we cannot allow a situation where these houses continue to remain incomplete and open to vandalism and destructive weather effects,” he Uutoni.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
