News / Local
Bulawayo squatter camps to be turned into suburbs
25 Oct 2015 at 08:22hrs | Views
AS the Bulawayo City Council continues to struggle to further expand the city to cater for a growing population, it has since taken the unprecedented move of formalising six squatter camps and two informal settlements within the city.
The city's housing backlog recently ballooned to over 100 000. The entire city is surrounded by land — mostly unused — that falls under the jurisdiction of the Umguza Rural District Council, with the two local authorities failing to reach a consensus on the possible expansion of the city.
This is despite a Presidential Proclamation - 15E of 2004 - and the subsequent Statutory Instruments that created the metropolitan provinces of Bulawayo and Harare. The metropolitan boundaries were declared as covering a further radius of up to 40 kilometres. The squatter camps that are now set to be formalised are Cabatsha, Trenance, Ngozi Mine, Durnkirk, Willsgrove and Killarney. The local authority will also formalise two suburbs; Emthunzini and Mbundane that have previously been subject to controversy with BCC refusing to recognise them as formal suburbs within the city.
In a brief description of the "slums", the local authority noted the need to set aside funds to put in place key infrastructure in the areas. Cabatsha is in the northern areas of the city and was established in the 1990s and has close to 100 housing units. Trenance is a slum establishment along Bulawayo Drive that follows a stream opposite Aisleby Farm entrance. Ngozi Mine is an old squatter camp that is known to have been established in the 1990s with the dwellers having been attracted by scavenging at the Richmond municipal dump site.
Durnkirk is located to the south western areas opposite Dunstal Farm. Durnkirk Farm lies outside the current municipal boundary but according to the local authority the settlement would affect the surrounding areas. The dwellers have been occupying the farm and have built huts resembling a village homestead and are even keeping livestock.
Willsgrove on the other hand is located along Gwanda Road headed east and just after the Umguza River where settlers purchased land from the village head, who built homesteads on a private property said to be owned by McDonald Bricks. There are over 300 units at the slum.
In Killarney, the slum settlement was established years ago with over 100 units which are scattered around the bush opposite Killarney to the east. Mbundane and Emthunzini suburbs are part of the local authority's operative Master Plan but have not been connected to services as they have not been incorporated into the city.
In the latest plans, the local authority is working on upgrading the current peri-urban settlements, formalising and putting in place the requisite infrastructure required for them to house proper development. According to the latest council report, the local authority has opted for the move as a way of addressing the city's ever increasing population due to rural-urban migration.
"The Bulawayo Master Plan was approved by the Minister on 29 January 2004. The master plan identified areas outside the City's boundary and anticipated incorporation. Bulawayo and its environs have been experiencing a growing rate of immigration with most people now opting to move into cities looking for a better standard of living different from the rural set-up where they migrate from.
"Some of the challenges faced within these slums include; lack of potable water supply system, lack of sanitation system, pollution, environmental problems and influx of informal vending. Solutions, in terms of formalising these settlements include upgrading of the existing water and sewer infrastructure to meet the anticipated demand, the upgrading will require support infrastructure in the form of new ground water reservoir to meet an additional demand of 20 023 mega litres," reads part of the report.
The local authority further noted that the provision of infrastructure for these settlements was estimated to cost $7,9 million, which will be used for the construction of a 40 mega litre reservoir ($5 333 333) and a bulk pipeline ($2 640 000).
In an interview with Sunday News, Bulawayo mayor Councillor Martin Moyo said they had since resolved that the council's Town Lands and Planning committee visits all the sites with the hope of coming up with a possible way forward.
"After the committee visits the sites, they will have a clear picture on what is happening and the state of all these informal settlements so that we can come up with a way forward," said Clr Moyo.
However, when a Sunday News crew visited some of these informal settlements, residents there expressed mixed views, with the majority revealing that they had lost faith in the local authority and if possible would resist any form of displacement.
"We are already a community, we are surviving without the services which they want to connect us to. They would rather just leave us alone because I fear they will bring a lot of problems for us. Besides their coming here means they will now charge rates and rentals which we cannot even afford, which is the reason in the first place that we resorted to these settlements," said a Mr Ncube from Killarney illegal settlement.
An inhabitant at Ngozi Mine said they would only agree to the move if their scavenging "business" was also formally recognised.
"If they want to formalise our settlement they should also recognise our business, yes we want houses but we are also staying here because we survive on scavenging. We also feel if the local authority is to provide us with any accommodation they should avail terms that are conducive for us. We don't want a situation where they come disguised as good Samaritans while in actual fact they just want to get rid of us because if we come to that we are prepared to fight back," said the resident who declined to be named.
BCC and Umguza RDC have for the past years been at each other's throats regarding the possible expansion of the city with Umguza accusing BCC of trying to illegally takeover land under their jurisdiction.
The city's housing backlog recently ballooned to over 100 000. The entire city is surrounded by land — mostly unused — that falls under the jurisdiction of the Umguza Rural District Council, with the two local authorities failing to reach a consensus on the possible expansion of the city.
This is despite a Presidential Proclamation - 15E of 2004 - and the subsequent Statutory Instruments that created the metropolitan provinces of Bulawayo and Harare. The metropolitan boundaries were declared as covering a further radius of up to 40 kilometres. The squatter camps that are now set to be formalised are Cabatsha, Trenance, Ngozi Mine, Durnkirk, Willsgrove and Killarney. The local authority will also formalise two suburbs; Emthunzini and Mbundane that have previously been subject to controversy with BCC refusing to recognise them as formal suburbs within the city.
In a brief description of the "slums", the local authority noted the need to set aside funds to put in place key infrastructure in the areas. Cabatsha is in the northern areas of the city and was established in the 1990s and has close to 100 housing units. Trenance is a slum establishment along Bulawayo Drive that follows a stream opposite Aisleby Farm entrance. Ngozi Mine is an old squatter camp that is known to have been established in the 1990s with the dwellers having been attracted by scavenging at the Richmond municipal dump site.
Durnkirk is located to the south western areas opposite Dunstal Farm. Durnkirk Farm lies outside the current municipal boundary but according to the local authority the settlement would affect the surrounding areas. The dwellers have been occupying the farm and have built huts resembling a village homestead and are even keeping livestock.
Willsgrove on the other hand is located along Gwanda Road headed east and just after the Umguza River where settlers purchased land from the village head, who built homesteads on a private property said to be owned by McDonald Bricks. There are over 300 units at the slum.
In Killarney, the slum settlement was established years ago with over 100 units which are scattered around the bush opposite Killarney to the east. Mbundane and Emthunzini suburbs are part of the local authority's operative Master Plan but have not been connected to services as they have not been incorporated into the city.
In the latest plans, the local authority is working on upgrading the current peri-urban settlements, formalising and putting in place the requisite infrastructure required for them to house proper development. According to the latest council report, the local authority has opted for the move as a way of addressing the city's ever increasing population due to rural-urban migration.
"The Bulawayo Master Plan was approved by the Minister on 29 January 2004. The master plan identified areas outside the City's boundary and anticipated incorporation. Bulawayo and its environs have been experiencing a growing rate of immigration with most people now opting to move into cities looking for a better standard of living different from the rural set-up where they migrate from.
The local authority further noted that the provision of infrastructure for these settlements was estimated to cost $7,9 million, which will be used for the construction of a 40 mega litre reservoir ($5 333 333) and a bulk pipeline ($2 640 000).
In an interview with Sunday News, Bulawayo mayor Councillor Martin Moyo said they had since resolved that the council's Town Lands and Planning committee visits all the sites with the hope of coming up with a possible way forward.
"After the committee visits the sites, they will have a clear picture on what is happening and the state of all these informal settlements so that we can come up with a way forward," said Clr Moyo.
However, when a Sunday News crew visited some of these informal settlements, residents there expressed mixed views, with the majority revealing that they had lost faith in the local authority and if possible would resist any form of displacement.
"We are already a community, we are surviving without the services which they want to connect us to. They would rather just leave us alone because I fear they will bring a lot of problems for us. Besides their coming here means they will now charge rates and rentals which we cannot even afford, which is the reason in the first place that we resorted to these settlements," said a Mr Ncube from Killarney illegal settlement.
An inhabitant at Ngozi Mine said they would only agree to the move if their scavenging "business" was also formally recognised.
"If they want to formalise our settlement they should also recognise our business, yes we want houses but we are also staying here because we survive on scavenging. We also feel if the local authority is to provide us with any accommodation they should avail terms that are conducive for us. We don't want a situation where they come disguised as good Samaritans while in actual fact they just want to get rid of us because if we come to that we are prepared to fight back," said the resident who declined to be named.
BCC and Umguza RDC have for the past years been at each other's throats regarding the possible expansion of the city with Umguza accusing BCC of trying to illegally takeover land under their jurisdiction.
Source - sundaynews
