Havana standoff delays trading market plans

About 53 households still living on the Havana community market site are holding up the whole development, the City of Windhoek said, leaving hundreds of informal traders without the market they were promised.

The CoW says the project cannot go ahead in full until those households move. The hold-up comes as the CoW pushes a wider plan to build better trading spaces across Windhoek.

**What the City told Parliament **

This week, the CoW briefed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Economy and Industry, Public Administration and Planning and the Standing Committee on Urban, Rural Development and Land Reform on its economic development initiatives, including progress on informal trading infrastructure.

The committees are chaired by Iipumbu Shiimi and Clemencia Coetzee.

**City CEO Moses Matyayi outlines projects **

During a presesntation, the CEO revealed that there are plans to construct a Central Hospital market and taxi rank which will cost a whooping N$8.8 million that will give 50 traders a place to work. Construction is set to begin after the site handover this month.

Meanwhile, the space in the City Centre, opposite Shoprite, a N$4.7 million project for 46 traders, with N$3.2 million contributed by Debmarine Namibia, will be constructed there. The site has been handed to the contractor and completion is expected by December 2026.

Moreover, traders operating at Truckport will also get a market, estimated at N$15 million, with designs completed and access road designs underway.

Returning to the Havana Fourway, the City says it is still continuing to relocate the remaining informal traders so the Eneas Peter Nanyemba Road can be completed, and a market will be developed in the area for about 350 traders.

Matyayi also said rapid rural-to-urban migration keeps putting pressure on the City’s capacity to deliver services. He called for government support with social services and for a sustainable central-government funding model for local authorities.

**Relocation **

Havana’s relocation was announced for October 2025, when the City said 43 households and a church would be moved to make way for an open market and taxi rank. A year later, in a written response to questions, the City blamed the delay on residents.

“The relocation process has experienced delays primarily due to the reluctance of some household owners to relocate to the designated resettlement areas in Havana Extensions 8 and 11. As a result, the implementation timeline and overall completion of the project have been affected,” CoW said.

The CoW said more than 200 households have been relocated. About 53 “still occupy the Community Market area and need to be relocated before the project can proceed in full. Asked whether eviction remains an option for those who refuse to move, the Cow said yes, they intend to evict.

**Traders’s number **

The CoW said traders first submitted a figure of approximately 370, but a recent verification exercise “registered 320 active traders.” A City statement in September 2025 had put the number of vendors at the Four-Way at around 443. The finished market is expected to accommodate about 350.

It will be built in two phases. Ongos will build Phase 1, expected to hold about 200 traders, and the Cow will develop Phase 2 for the rest. Stall priority “will be given to registered traders currently operating within the market area,” with final criteria to be set by the Cow under approved procedures.

The City said it could not give the cost of the market, because “the development will be undertaken and funded by the developer at its own cost.

Construction will start once the remaining households have moved and other project dependencies are resolved.

The market is also tied to the road upgrade. “The implementation of the market development is linked to the completion of the road upgrade and will proceed accordingly,” said the Cow.

In the meantime, registered traders will be temporarily relocated to an unaffected portion of the same erf where the market development will take place, allowing them to keep trading during construction.

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