N$1 billion Goreangab township delayed for five years more

AN ambitious plan to develop a new luxurious, yet affordable township alongside Goreangab Dam in Windhoek proposed more than 10 years ago will be delayed for a further five years after the company responsible for the project failed to complete it within the approved time frame.

The project, called the Goreangab Waterfront Development, is being developed by a company called Green Building Construction Namibia (Pty) Ltd, on Erf 3 188, Goreangab, measuring about 41 hectares.

The company wants to develop a 'new lifestyle' township, which will include more than 1 100 affordable housing units, several business units, and leisure and institutional mixed-use development plots.

In 2014 the project was estimated to cost more than N$1 billion and create about 2 800 temporary jobs.

The land concerned is adjacent to another open land plot at Goreangab Extension 4 where the municipality is currently installing bulk services as part of the now-discontinued massive urban land-servicing initiative which started in 2015.

Since the initiative was approved under the municipality's special-projects policy, the company was only asked to pay about N$28 million for the land.

Under the special-projects initiative, the municipality sells unserviced land to private developers at a subsidised price to encourage development and job creation.

The project was expected to be completed by 2023.

However, after completing several stages of the project, including engineering designs and tendering between 2016 and 2018, it stagnated and the construction of municipal infrastructure could not be completed.

The company claims it has experienced delays due to various events, including the delayed finalisation of the installation of bulk services on the adjacent Goreangab Extension 4 plot.

According to documents, various portions of the project's components are largely dependent on the completion of the bulk and infrastructure services.

There have also been incidents of unlawful dumping of spoil material by other developers contracted by the municipality.

Other delays, the company said, are related to the encroachment of illegal building structures on its land, and the Covid-19 state of emergency.

Due to these delays the company has thus asked the municipality to extend the completion date from the initial 2023 to 2026.

Council documents seen by The Namibian show the municipality has agreed to the proposed extension.

“The development provides an opportunity to change the entire landscape of the Goreangab township, considering that a fully functional township at a much higher developmental level is to be realised.

This will have a positive image on the current Goreangab township establishment, including the land values,” the council document states.

The Namibian has in the past reported that Green Building Construction is a subsidiary of a company called Sakawe Mining Corporation (Samicor), which is 76% owned by the Lev Leviev Group of Companies.

Namibian mining company Longlife Mining owns 10% of Samicor.

The government owns 8%, the National Youth Service 2%, and Samicor employees a 4% stake.