Keetmans sells land worth N$40m through PPP deal
By Luqman Cloete, NEWS - NATIONAL | 2015-06-17, Source
THE Keetmanshoop Municipality last month approved the sale of virgin land measuring 1 359 175 square metres for N$40 million to property developer GOH Investments CC through a private public partnership (PPP) deal.
Keetmanshoop chief executive officer Desmond Basson confirmed the approval of the sale but said the resolution must still go through the full town council meeting at the end of this month.
The land sale approval comes amid growing suspicion in the country over developers entering PPP deals with municipalities, as these are considered get-rich-quick schemes.
President Hage Geingob recently said, when reaffirming his commitment to address land reform, another intervention to ensure equitable land distribution is cutting out the middlemen in the servicing of land and that municipalities be given subsidies, so that they can service land themselves instead of involving private companies.
As part of the land sale deal, which was proposed by council management chairperson Willie Kotze and seconded by councillor Magret Snewe, the company must commit itself to sell 40 000 square metres to the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) Pty Ltd.
The Namibian has established that Namcor - a week before GOH Investments CC submitted its proposal to develop an industrial area township - had applied for an industrial erf for the establishment of a bulk storage facility at the town.
According to Namcor, the town is strategically located and best fit to serve the southern, south-eastern and western parts of the country. In its proposal to council dated 29 October 2014, of which The Namibian has seen a copy, the company proposed to develop an industrial area township on the said 135,9 hectare plot it offered to buy at N$33 per square metre.
However, council resolved to sell the land for N$30 per square metre.
The company intends to develop 59 light industrial plots, 25 heavy industrial plots adjacent to the railway and a public space measuring 475 711 square metres, comprising of roads and other non-sellable areas.
The potential cost of the industrial area township project, including the land price, development and construction, professional fees, office and other equipment and working capital is estimated at N$ 374 million, the company proposal stated.
According to a letter of intent, of which The Namibian has also seen a copy, Preferred Management Services (PTY) Ltd has expressed intention to the fund GOH Investments CC to develop the land in question, The Namibian has established.
An investigation by The Namibian additionally revealed that Gottlieb Hinda is the sole owner of GOH Investments.
Hinda is the former Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) chief operations officer.
He resigned towards the end of 2011 when DBN completed the re-alignment process and had given him an option to apply for one of the newly created positions as his position had become redundant.