The case involving Heaven's Ark Housing Organization and developer Stefan Malan was postponed to May 12 in the Windhoek Regional Court, pending further investigations.

It is alleged that Malan had an agreement with the organization that owns the land to build houses for them.

He is accused of having failed to honor that deal, though.

About 1,000 members of the organization claim the developer benefited at their expense, having built close to 600 units for himself at the Otjomuise plot.

Malan was supposed to deliver 61 houses to the group in exchange, according to the agreement.

"What is worse is that four of our members died in past floods while waiting because they did not have homes but they had land to build homes, and someone is sitting with the money. That is not right," said James Links, a facilitator at the Heaven's Ark Housing Organization.

Malan was arrested in 2021 on charges of fraud after Heaven's Ark Housing opened a criminal case against him.

He was released on bail of N$50,000 a day later.

"They believe we gave him the mandate to do everything he wants, which is not the case, and even if he signed on our behalf, there was no consultation when he did the transfer in his name," added Links.

The City of Windhoek (CoW) allocated two plots to the housing project for low-income earners in the Otjomuise area, but due to a lack of funds, they could not start construction.

That's when they met MPG Projects' property developer, Stefan Malan.

The agreement, the group maintains, was for the developer to construct apartment units on one of the plots and standalone houses for them on the other.