Abstract
For decades poor and low-income residents in urban areas of developing countries have sought security in informal settlements. One of the main threats to tenure security for households is the action of governments, especially with the eviction of households in informal settlements. Tenure security is understood as being a complex concept (Mahadevia, 2010). There is a consensus among researchers(van Gelder, 2010) that tenure security is an important enabler for improvement of living conditions, as summarised by van Gelder( 2007). While the layman may think that security of tenure entails a full legal title, as spearheaded by crusaders of titling De Soto and others (Reerink & van Gelder, 2010)that is neither wrong nor right. Tenure security is important for development, residents without titles are assumed not to enjoy a high level of tenure security. Ownership of land for Namibians was not permitted in urban areas and was only limited to homelands, regulated under customary law (Lankhorst, 2010).To date, Namibia has three different tenure systems, communal, governed under customary law, state tenure under the control of government and freehold managed under Roman-Dutch law and English law (Lankhorst, 2010). Urbanisation in Namibia started in the late nineteen sixties, in response to the demand for labour by South African Administration (Willem, 2005). As a result many migrants from rural areas ended up in informal settlements (Lankhorst, 2010). Only after Independence did rural areas start to increase since 1992(Lankhorst, 2010); this was after the enactment of the Local Authorities Act of 1992(Republic of Namibia, 1992). The Act gave all non-registered land falling within the municipal boundaries to local authorities. The number of occupants in informal settlements further increased after independence (Lankhorst, 2010). To deal with informal settlements, local authorities developed reception areas to cater for newcomers, who in turn have de facto tenure. According to Lankhorst, (2010), this resulted in insecurity, that contributed to a lack of household maintenance and unwillingness to make improvements on structures. The lack of improvements or investment in housing is not by choice; as informal settlement dwellers are relocated at the behest of local authorities (Lankhorst, 2010). In order to improve living conditions, tenure security should be a priority. Governments around the world are working towards improving residents’ levels of tenure security and meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of No Poverty and Hunger by 2030 to mention a few. Moreover, researches have written at length on tenure security levels and importance of investment. Plus, proposed methodologies to measure tenure security based on context. This study investigates the level of tenure security in informal settlements in Gobabis, a municipal town in eastern Namibia using the feeling and thinking state of residents in relation to fear of eviction. A Likert scale was used to measure the perceptions for the residents. Findings show that residents in informal settlements have a high level of security in relation to their perceptions. Residents who have occupied informal settlements have high levels of tenure security with confidence that they will not be evicted based on the duration of occupation, despite having no legal documents to support claims to land. The study further shows that the availability of services does not contribute to an increased level of security. The study recommends that in order to improve implement sustainable urban settlements through upgrading, tenure security should be set as a high priority within the upgrading of informal settlements. Residents with the highest level of tenure security have participated in participatory planning activities and co-designed the new layout. This was later formalized, and residents are issued with land titles and started constructing houses.
