An Investigation Into The Availability Of Urban Land And Its Implications On National Security Of Namibia: A Case Study Of Windhoek (Khomas Region

ABSTRACT

The main aim of this thesis was to investigate the availability of the urban land and its

implication for national security in Namibia using the case study of Windhoek (Khomas Region).

The City of Windhoek has been faced with the problem of slower pace of allocating affordable

land and servicing that has seen the gap between demand and supply widening drastically and

the growing numbers of people from rural areas to Windhoek resulting in increased demands for

serviceable land. The convenience technique was used to sample the participants for the study.

Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews and observations to investigate, firstly, the

availability of land in Windhoek. Secondly, the factors that lead to the slow process of allocating

affordable urban land to Windhoek residents to build shelter were investigated. Thirdly, the

study explored the implications that the unavailability of urban land has on national security.

After analysing the data through the qualitative methodologies, the study found that the problem

that low-income earners and landless people in Windhoek encounter in acquiring land is high

price in purchasing land for dwelling, high interest rates on mortgage bonds to income and

collateral requirements of financial institutions and serviced land in Windhoek benefits only the

high-income earners. The study found that the major challenges that the City of Windhoek faces

is the shortage of developable land, lack of technical capacity, limited financial resources

embedded with cumbersome procedures in the process of preparation and approval of detailed

plans as prepared by land experts has been a catalyst for the low capacity of the municipality in

allocating land. The study further found that due to the unavailability of affordable land, most of

the poor people in Windhoek live in very poor living conditions and overcrowded in informal

settlement which is a threat to human security. The study recommends that there is a need to

review the existing policies on land allocation to address issues of land scarcity in Windhoek,

land servicing and delivery models need to be reformed to take into account the rapid population

dynamics. The study further recommended that the City of Windhoek need to be empowered

with both technical and financial capacity to facilitate in provision of effective and efficiency

services of providing land for housing.