City and Khomas council work on action plan

Critical issues such as land delivery, housing and good service delivery were highlighted as areas that should be addressed by the City of Windhoek and the Khomas Regional Council as the two institutions jointly held a strategic planning workshop this week.
The minister of urban and rural development, Sophia Shaningwa, whose speech was read by Khomas Regional Governor Laura McLeod-Katjirua, applauded the Khomas Regional Council and the Windhoek municipality for coming together to craft a joint plan of action to harmonise and guide their programmes and activities in the coming years.
Shaningwa urged the two institutions to pay special attention to land delivery, saying that many people in the Khomas Region do not have access to land for housing and self-sustaining economic purposes.
She said this has resulted in them living in squalor.
According to her the perception of urban centres such as Windhoek as an oasis of opportunities results in a large influx of people hoping to make a better life for themselves and their families.
“The impact of this on the limited support infrastructure is known, but the trend is unavoidable and the central government and sub-national governments must continue to devise feasible ways to address this phenomenon by creating opportunities in both rural and urban areas,” said Shaningwa.
She therefore said that the regional council and the municipality must make sure that their strategic and annual plans contain effective measures that will improve and accelerate land delivery to people in an urgent and transparent manner and plans are aligned to the plans of the ministry and national development plans.
Shaningwa said housing is a priority area.
“We are tasked to design and implement policy and legal instruments that are aimed at spearheading and accelerating the delivery of affordable housing for the ultra-low and middle-income members of our society.”
She said the regional and city councils should re-examine existing programmes on housing development and come up with measures to make them more effective and responsive to the housing needs of people.
Shaningwa stressed that regional councils and local authorities have a responsibility to construct and provide affordable housing.
“This support used to be provided in the past and the question you should address is: why is it no longer being provided and how can it be revived to contribute to the reduction of the housing backlog?”
Shaningwa further said that the two institutions must focus on good governance and professional conduct. She noted with concern public complaints about irregularities and favouritism in the way some local authorities allocate urban land, and also about public servants being unprofessional and rude towards the public.
She said there is a perception that public servants are very slow in attending to requests or complaints received from the public.
“I want to see an end to all this unbecoming conduct,” the minister said. Another critical issue Shaningwa mentioned was budgeting and budget execution.
She said that given competing demands and limited resources, the councils must do more with fewer resources at their disposal and they should, therefore, focus on their core functions.
According to her this means that they must use their limited financial resources to bring about development and deliver services to people, instead of for operational expenses.

ELLANIE SMIT