TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The government has ordered that local authorities should issue out housing stands to home seekers in areas that are fully serviced with infrastructure such as roads, functioning water and sewer systems as it seeks to bring order to human settlements.
In 2020, the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) revealed that it was struggling to service more than 2 000 pre-sale residential stands that were bought more than two years ago.
Speaking at the launch of the Hopelyn Housing scheme in Bulawayo, Housing and Social Amenities minister, Daniel Garwe said building a house before the services are provided is now a jailable offense.
“What we are doing now going forward is to ensure that on-site and off-site infrastructure is provided before any house is built. Building a house before the services are provided is now a jailable offense. I have no apologies to make on that statement. It’s criminal for local authorities to allow people to build on virgin land,” he said.
He said local authorities should follow the right procedures to avoid problems in future.
Garwe said the government will support in housing delivery.
“We are playing our role as the Ministry of national housing we are providing for success in the housing delivery programme. Whatever is being asked by investors we are providing. Whatever is being asked by our banks we are providing. We are assisting our local authorities; we speed up the process of regularisation,” Garwe said.
“The human settlements policy has got several stations. And one of the key stations is the 40% land set aside for flats. The other key station is to ensure that on-site off-site infrastructure is provided before a house is built up. We cannot say we want to achieve an upper middle-income status by 2030, “he said.
To address the estimated 1.5 million housing backlog, Government has stepped up efforts towards its target of delivering affordable housing to Zimbabwean citizens.
BancABC managing director Lance Mambondiani said: “We are partnering with government in housing delivery and as such we have invested money in partnership with Hopelyn Housing to service these stands and we thought of starting in Bulawayo then spreading to other parts of the country.”
Hopelyn and Hopeville head of marketing for the board, Lynne Knight said they have really enjoyed their partnership with BancABC.
The project is being developed by financial services institution BancABC from the US$11m funding availed by Shelter Afrique and is targeting the construction of houses for low to middle-income earners countrywide.
It will benefit home seekers from Bulawayo, Harare, Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare.
Shelter Afrique is a Pan-African banking institution that exclusively supports the development of affordable housing and real estate sector development in Africa.
