Bulawayo city centre buildings turned into brothels

BULAWAYO city councillors have called for an investigation into the activities of owners of dilapidated and disused buildings in the city centre amid reports that some of the structures have been turned into brothels.

In an interview on Thursday, the councillor for Ward One, Mr Edward Manning, said council was concerned about the buildings that continue to lie idle.

"We have a lot of unoccupied buildings in the city centre and some of them are being used as brothels. I have reported that issue to council and we discussed it.

"We have organised a tour with the council staff where we will need to identify such buildings and engage their owners," said Clr Manning.

"As council we are worried about that especially considering that the owners of these buildings are people owe council substantial amounts in unpaid rates.

"A lot of people in the city are in need of accommodation yet we have buildings that continue to lie idle and their owners are not known."

Prostitution is illegal in Zimbabwe but its practice is rife in Bulawayo and other cities.

Clr Manning said the council would seek to dig deeper into the issue and come up with measures of taking the owners to task.

"We cannot have a situation where owners of such big buildings are failing to pay rates to council yet poor people in Makokoba, for instance, at least struggle to pay something to council," he said.

Bulawayo Mayor Clr Thaba Moyo is on record urging owners of dilapidated buildings to renovate their structures or risk having them demolished.

Last year there was a furore over unoccupied buildings in the city centre with Zanu-PF youths urging the Government to take and allocate them to indigenous business people.

A number of buildings are believed to be owned by foreigners who dumped the city and opened businesses elsewhere.