Eighty residents of Otjiwarongo in the Otjozondjupa Region on Wednesday received plots where they are expected to build houses through the Build Together and National Housing Enterprise (NHE) programmes. The land where the plots are situated is fully serviced with street lights and roads, electricity, sewage connections and drinking water systems. Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni, handed the plots over in the presence of a Build Together committee comprising of eight members from Otjiwarongo and a housing project manager for the NHE, Lukas Petrus. Uutoni urged the beneficiaries to not waste time and to start building their houses as soon as possible. “You were saying you need land, you need houses, now that your Government has delivered plots, I want to see houses standing here as soon as May this year,” he said. The minister explained that 40 of the 80 plots were allocated to Build Together members, while the remaining 40 went to residents on the NHE applicant list. The two huge serviced plots form part of the Heroes Park and Freedom Park residential areas situated between the Tsaraxa-Aibes and DRC informal settlements. The land was serviced through the Government’s mass land servicing programme which was completed at the town in 2017 at a cost of N$30 million. Uutoni thanked the Otjiwarongo Municipality for facilitating the servicing of land and for allocating the plots to the beneficiaries. Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Vistoria Thomas said it had been a dream for her and other beneficiaries to reach this stage of receiving plots. “Today, we would like to thank the Otjiwarongo Municipality and our Government as this dream of owning a house will soon be realised,” she said. Thomas further stated that the actual construction of houses by her members will take place in May and July this year.