40 Bulawayo CBD buildings condemned

THE Bulawayo City Council has condemned 40 buildings in the city centre, issuing owners with notices to rectify the identified defects in compliance with council by-laws.

BCC public relations officer Miss Bongiwe Ngwenya confirmed that the local authority has condemned some buildings but noted that the problem was far rooted and needed an all-stakeholder approach.

"Bulawayo City Council has an inventory of affected properties. Owners of the non-compliant properties are given notices as per the above legislation to rectify the identified defects. About 40 notices have so far been issued this year.

"Legislation also allows council to intervene and take the necessary action to remedy the defects. Bulawayo City Council continues to engage owners of the buildings to mitigate the problem," said Miss Ngwenya.

She said there were a number of national and council by-laws which governed the state of buildings, which they constantly referred to when dealing with the city's buildings or when they received complaints from concerned residents.

"Some of the legislations include the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15], Housing and Building Act [Chapter 22:07], Housing Standards Control Act [Chapter 29:08], Regional, Town and Country Planning Act [Chapter 29:12], Bulawayo (Buildings, Roads and Street Bylaws) 1971 and the Model Buildings By Laws, 1977," she said.

Miss Ngwenya, however, noted that while they continued to pressurise building owners to keep their properties in good shape to prevent them from being a danger to occupants, they also fully understood that some of the owners were facing cash flow problems.

"It should, however, be noted that the aspect of urban decay manifested by dilapidated buildings is far rooted in the poor performance of national economies otherwise in a

properly functioning economy the demand and supply factors affecting the property market ensures buildings are well maintained and occupied to provide service to the local economy.

"The issue at concern follows the same problem of closed industries in the city contributing to a large pool of under-utilised buildings in the city. These are facing deterioration due to poor maintenance and lack of capital injection," said Miss Ngwenya.

She said there was a need for a multi-sectoral approach that will help revive the property sector as a whole.

"The problem is therefore deeper than meets the eye and strategies required to deal with the problem require local, regional and national policy co-ordination to stimulate local economies of which the property market is just one sector interconnected to others," she said.

In recent years the city has experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of abandoned, neglected and derelict buildings in the Central Business District.

Some of the buildings include Armona Mansions located at the intersection of Robert Mugabe Way and Fourth Avenue, Chrystal at the corner of George Silundika Street and Second Avenue and Banff along Herbert Chitepo Street.

According to the Real Estate Institution of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo has one of the lowest occupancy ratios in the country. The shortage of office space has seen some residential flats in the city being turned into offices.