The Minister of Urban and Rural Development Erastus Uutoni has questioned the City of Windhoek (CoW) leadership who are caught up in political squabbles.

Uutoni said this during the handing over of houses to eight beneficiaries, under the Windhoek Municipal Council Affordable Housing Pilot Programme here on Thursday.

Uutoni said he is not happy with CoW’s leadership because he is the head of the institution and they should accept it, and they seem to be neglecting the cries of the Khomas Region residents, referring to CoW’s ward workers’ strike recently.

“Thousands and thousands of people are crying and they said let’s sit and talk and you refused, but yet you are talking about creating employment. There is absence of leadership on the City’s council, for how long will the CEO be acting? You owe us and we are giving you time to do the right thing,” Uutoni fumed.

The minister added that he is not happy with the price of the houses, saying they are expensive and not everyone can afford them; especially now that the repo rate has increased by another 25 basis points.

The price range for the houses handed over is beteeen N.dollars 850 000 and N.dollars 1.2 million.

“My concern is that a 300 square metre house is N.dollars 850 000, to me it is a bit too high, if we said we could have reduced the amount and divide the houses and the beneficiaries can extend their houses themselves, with the increased repo rate it is now going to be tough,” he cautioned.

Uutoni further added that the councillors are not doing anything as there are no councillor decisions among them and they cannot meet because of the differences they have.

“Enough is enough. People should stop pointing fingers and start reviewing their problems,” Uutoni concluded.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency