City of Bulawayo boundaries to be extended

THE City of Bulawayo's boundaries will be extended next year, a move which would be welcomed by thousands of desperate home seekers on the city's ballooning housing waiting list.

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Deputy Minister Christopher Chingosho told Parliament on Wednesday that financial constraints had delayed the implementation of the plan.

"The issue is being addressed by my ministry and according to the ministry's plan, the actual implementation will start in 2016. I would like to point out that one of the reasons for the delay is finance," he said.

"The second reason again is that, as you're aware the Ministry is under restructuring. Some of the divisions are going to the new Ministry of Rural Development and Preservation of Culture and Heritage."

Deputy Minister Chingosho was responding to a question posed by Luveve legislator Ntandoyenkosi Mpala who wanted to know when the city's boundaries would be extended.

Deputy Minister Chingosho said delays in the city's expansion were partially caused by budgetary constraints. "It's both the monetary problem but mostly as you've rightly pointed out, it's the process itself where the land, first of all has to be acquired by Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement and then handed over to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and then handed over to Bulawayo City," he said.

"When that land is acquired, it's going to benefit the people resident around that area. Secondly, the land was acquired already but having been acquired isn't enough to just acquire and then you start the implementation of the project.

"I'm saying the process of handing over that land finally to the Bulawayo Municipality hasn't been concluded."

Bulawayo City Council has previously said it had exhausted all the land for expansion, negatively impacting on housing development in a city that has a housing waiting list estimated to be over 100,000.

Given the growing population and the rural-urban migration, there is growing demand for accommodation, with analysts blaming lack of space for the sprouting of illegal settlements and squatter camps such as Ngozi Mine in Richmond and others on the outskirts of Killarney and Trenance suburbs.

Bulawayo is completely surrounded by Umguza Rural District Council and over the years engagements between the two local authorities for the city's expansion have not been successful.