By Simon Liseli
KATIMA Mulilo Town Council has received 31 brand new houses (bulk services) from Shikuh Investments CC on Tuesday, at extension 21 of New Cowboy suburb location which is located near Chefuzwe Area,a few meters apart.
Speaking during the handing over ceremony Katima Mulilo mayor Georgina Mwiya –Simataa said her council is in support with the government’s vision of delivering services to its people like Harambe Prosperity plan(HPP) under the social progression pillar of land delivery and providing decent housing.
“That is one of the most common within the Namibian nation where local authorities face challenges in providing adequate served land to its residents due to lack of financial resources from the head government” noted the mayor.
The ground breaking ceremony of the bulks was held on November 21, 2016 and Shikuh Investment Company was given work to construct about 187 houses at Cowboy, for the higher income earners.
The Katima Mulilo Town Council has donated land for the construction, and this has come in response to the lack of shelter facing residents of Katima Mulilo, which has also resorted some of the residents grabbing the land without any permission.
Katima Council took itself to stretch an extra helping hand with the government and its residents by engaging in public private partnership (PPP) and Shikuh investment was one of them which is currently at 60% to its completion.
The bulk services were expected to be delivered to the council by the end of June 2018 but it was met before the agreed period.
“this event shouldn’t be the ending point but it should be a wakeup call to all of us and remind us that urbanization has increased to its maximum as people move from rural areas to urban areas for greener pastures and as service providers we need to change our gears for better and improved governance” she stressed.
Hon. Mwiya-Simataa appealed to residents of Cowboy to support council’s initiatives by taking good care of the facilities and use them for the meant purposes. The mayor also called on the community to give a hand by improving their structures to permanent to the council to provide services such as sewer system, better road infrastructure and other services easier. The project is being funded by Standard Bank Namibia.
“I am inviting business community to develop our town, and our doors are open for that and investment opportunities let us work together in order to address issues affecting our people, together we can develop Katima Mulilo” concluded Katima mayor.
Speaking at the same occasion, Zambezi regional governor hon. Lawrence Sampofu expressed his warm approval towards the town council for embarking upon developments which he described to be a long with difficulties.
He encouraged quests that were present during the hand over ceremony to go for private public partnership (PPP), because the government alone cannot do it without involvement of PPP.
“When you go into development lot of resources are needed such as financial injections, manpower, community involvement and other things, is why we always say development comes with costs and KMTC is working towards the right directions in order to achieve its goals” said governor Sampofu.
The governor added that Katima Mulilo town needs lot of development for both residents and business community as the government also needs investors to come on board to assist in providing services to the public.
Hon. Sampofu appealed to the community of Cowboy to cooperate with the town council for more developments.
“Lets work together with the council, their doors are open for suggestions and I still call upon our residents to be always patient because developments have phases due to resources at our disposal and we also call upon other extensions that are illegal occupied to be given away for developments” he emphasized.
However, Shikuh managing member Mr. John Udjombala and the partnership full bright of pressure said it was pleasure and honor to Katima town council for availing land to their company through PPP to build on houses for the people of the town.
Mr. Udjombala was pleased to mention in his statement that bulk services, water, gravel roads, electricity and sewer at extension 21 were 100% completed. “We are happy to inform you that the services that I just mentioned here will today be handed over to Katima Town Council” he said
Almost 82 houses have been built and 40 are fully completed and their beneficiaries are now ready to move in their houses anytime and 31 houses are at 80% complete while 11 at 50% complete.
According to the managing member , need for more land is on high demand and high bad lock of enquiry of housing in the region daily and that needs a strong relationship with the town council and some stakeholder for working together to provide decent houses for the people.
“Our humble request to the council is to be given an opportunity to obtain additional land to build more homes for the people who are still in need of housing and demand to keep rising everyday. Let us work in cooperation with public and private sector to build our country and to meet the central government half- way to provide so much needed land and housing to our people in the spirit of Harambe” he concluded.
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