Wlotzkasbaken - to be or not to be?

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Written by Lienette Goosen

Friday, 17 April 2009 09:06

Not a fence in sight. Black stones are all that separate the properties from each other allowing free roaming for residents of and visitors to Wlotzkasbaken. The most recent survey on a total of 258 erven was done in 2002 and approved by the Surveyor-General of Namibia on 11 December 2002. Short iron poles of which only a few are left indicate the boundaries, according to this survey.

If to be, what is to be? A town or a village? What do the residents of Wlotzkasbaken want and what does the government want? The tug of war on the development of Wlotzkasbaken does not seem to end and costs are running ever higher.
Supreme Court case SA6/2008
Is the final word now out and all the cards on the table with the dismissal on 17 March of an appeal by the Erongo Regional Council and the Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing and Rural Development against orders by the Supreme Court in this legal battle against the Wlotzkasbaken Home Owners Association that has been raging on since 2006?
History sets the table
The rise of this beacon shed some light on this everlasting feud and its unique character. It is named after Mr. Paul Wlotzka for whom it was a halfway house on his regular trips by horse cart from Swakopmund to Henties Bay as well as the only remaining trigonometrical beacon of a survey of the Skeleton Coast during the 1930’s. Paul Wlotzka was also the first one to build a temporary shelter in Wlotzkasbaken. Wlotzkasbaken still mirrors these unique temporary houses each with its own water tank.
· Early days: Wlotzkasbaken has gained popularity as a fishing spot since 1936, soon more temporary houses were set up.
· Administration steps in: In 1955 the SWA Administration surveyed 24 erven, which were leased on a long term basis. In 1955 this increased to 87 and thereafter to 110.
· Proclamation as Peri-Urban Area: In 1972 Wlotzkasbaken was proclaimed a peri-urban area and erven were now leased on an annual basis, as it is currently. With increasing development and thus pressure on the Peri-Urban Board to control Wlotzkasbaken an advisory committee consisting of residents was formed to discuss matters pertaining to Wlotzkasbaken.
· 1985: Since 1985 several efforts were made to survey Wlotzkasbaken and divide it into more erven and proclaim it as a township. On legal grounds and with difficulties pointed out by the Advisory Board the Department of Governmental Affairs informed the Advisory Committee that the status quo on the development would be maintained.
· Erongo Regional Council: Under the Local Authorities Act, Act No. 23 of 1992, Wlotzkasbaken was a village, but by Government Notice 22 of 1993 it became a settlement area in terms of the Act and was then, in terms of the provisions of the Act, under the jurisdiction of the Erongo Regional Council.
The way Wlotzka residents want it - the 110 existing erven.

The way Wlotzka residents want it - the 110 existing erven.

The way the Erongo Regional Council wants it - 258 small plots. The Erongo Regional Council recently lost its appeal against an earlier court order to leave the Wlotzka residents alone.

The development plans of the Erongo Regional Council then set the scene for a still not in existent development and the aforementioned legal battle . On 24 April 2001 the Namib Times quoted from the budget speech by the Regional Governor Councillor S S Nuuyoma’s describing Wlotzkasbaken as a settlement area, which is a burden and the Council’s intention to develop it into a village in order to sustain itself.
We are self sufficient
“We are no burden – we never were. The community has run its own affairs for 30 years under the Peri-Urban Board and we are not against development.” says Mr. Kerry McNamara, resident and second respondent to the courts case.
“What was it trying to achieve?” asks McNamara. In an interview, McNamara voiced the concerns and opinions of the majority of the lessees of properties in Wlotzkasbaken.
“Up until now nearly N$1 million in legal expenses was incurred by the Erongo Regional Council, the last of which was to appeal against an agreement that had been made an order of court by their own request. Did they not have proper legal advice or was this some feeding frenzy of tax payers money?”
According to McNamara, Wlotzkasbaken has an internationally recognised unique character.
“We support development in line with this character. A unique characteristic is that, because there are no fences and only lines of stones demarcating erf boundaries, pedestrian patterns of movement are separated from traffic patterns. Children wander freely from one house to another. The large spaces between the houses also ensure the privacy that urban houses need walls to achieve.”
“All that we ever wanted is that the rule of law be applied in the selling of erven and that a right of pre-emption was given to the 110 existing house owners. The remaining 148 were agreed would go out to public auction as required by law. Why must the government be allowed to break its own laws? “
He voiced most of the other residents’ frustration with the never-ending attempts to develop Wlotzkasbaken.
“Wlotzkasbaken is by any definition of ‘development’ – fully developed. All the houses have their own services, their own lights, water systems, electricity supply, energy source and sewerage system. All completed and paid for by each homeowner.
All that the residents really wanted was freehold title to the properties that they had occupied for 60 years or more, and into which they had invested large sums of money. There was also an interest in retaining the unique character in any future extensions to this popular seaside village.”
McNamara describes Wlotzkasbaken as the Paternoster of Namibia. “All the houses are self-designed and self-built. Is it necessary to destroy that character, that quality of life that lives so easily and is so much part of and in harmony with the surrounding desert?”
Perhaps now that the courts have re-established rationality, the village can soon be proclaimed a town or village and be allowed to run its own affairs. The Erongo Regional Council could then spend its income on Otjimbingwe or Okombahe where its money is urgently needed by the less fortunate people.