More than 4,000 people are currently on the Keetmanshoop Town Council housing waiting list.

The town's acting CEO, Cathy Boois, revealed this at the pre-allocation of plots in the Kronlein residential area.

Boois says the huge housing backlog has prompted the council's decision to pre-allocate 150 unserviced, unsurveyed, and unplanned plots to landless residents.

Only residents who are on the housing waiting lists are eligible for the pre-allocation of plots.

Backyard squatters at the Oudeline houses will also be prioritised.

"The Keetmanshoop waiting lists for housing currently stand at almost 4,000; with the new names that came in this week, I believe it has surpassed 4,500 or even 5,000. So why are we on the waiting list? You come on the waiting list because you want land, you need land, and that's why we make use of the waiting list so that I can't give someone who only came today an erf while there are people who already came in 2001, for instance. So we want to ensure that people on the waiting list will be catered for in terms of priority."

Boois explains what the pre-allocation means. "The pre-allocation that will happen today is the certificate that will give you the first option to occupy a piece of land once it is available in terms of serviced, surveyed, and planned."

The council pre-allocated unserviced plots despite the Minister of Rural and Urban Development calling on local authorities not to allocate unserviced land.

When asked whether the pre-allocation of plots carried the minister's endorsement, the mayor of Keetmanshoop, McDonald Hnase, had this to say: "He knows about what we are busy with; we even received a letter today from him. When it comes to endorsement, we are just at the pre-allocation level, so there is no need for any endorsement at this stage."

The mayor also rejected as a joke speculation that the LPM-dominated council pushed for the pre-allocation to score political points in the upcoming by-election.