300 000 Zimbabweans to get houses countrywide

GOVERNMENT will this year avail serviced stands, construct new flats and renovate old flats and housing units in Bulawayo to meet modern standards under the "Own Your Own Home" housing scheme which will see 300 000 housing units being availed around the country by 2018, an official has said.

The move is anchored on the country's economic blueprint, Zim Asset, which stipulates that Government should by 2018 have availed 313 368 houses across the country.

In Bulawayo, the housing ministry has identified Emganwini suburb and land under Umguza District for servicing of stands.

While the Bulawayo City Council is planning to avail only 15 000 stands by 2018, the ministry is hopeful that the scheme will avail close to 75 000 stands as the local authority has enough land to do so.

Director for Housing in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Mr Lexton Kuwanda said the scheme will be anchored on member contributions to leverage finance, while the ministry will provide land and infrastructure services.

He also said plans were underway for the renovation of old flats like Sidojiwe near Tshabalala, Burombo in Nguboyenja and Vundu in Makokoba to meet modern standards. Some houses in Mabutweni will also get a facelift.

Mr Kuwanda said the ministry is yet to finalise on the issue of cost but assured "that the stands and flats will be affordable because the main idea behind this scheme is to ensure that people own houses".

"It is a nationwide programme with various offers where the Government has identified sites where new stands will be serviced, new flats will be built and sites that need in-fills have also been identified. The scheme will be affordable to everyone especially low income earning people. However, I encourage people to go for stands than for constructed flats as flats will attract more money," he said.

"As the Government we are very much concerned with the land that is lying idle hence we want to ensure that land is fully utilised so that cities can too be able to address their housing backlog. Land is an infinite resource and with our housing policy we want to employ vertical space utilisation which is in conformity with our density identification hence land won't be wasted."

Residents in Harare have already started registering for the scheme which is mainly meant to protect the public from land barons that have fleeced them of millions of dollars through illegal sales of residential stands on undesignated sites.

Bulawayo's housing backlog is more than 100 000, but when the Ministry Local Government, Public Works and National Housing asked the local authority to indicate their land requirements to the Government to facilitate their fulfillment of targets under Zim Asset, the Bulawayo City Council only indicated they were going to service 15 000 stands yet Harare and Mashonaland West plan to avail 105 000 and 23 000 stands respectively.

"Bulawayo said they were planning to avail 15 000 stands, Harare had 105 000 but these were just their plans and I am certain that they surpassed these figures. In any circumstance that the local authorities no longer have the land to service stands, state land is being offered as part of the ground for uptake.

"As Government we will ensure that houses go to people who are indeed in dire need of houses," Mr Kuwanda said.
"Besides availing serviced stands, there are some old suburbs that will need a face lift and in Bulawayo places like Sidojiwe Flats and Mabutweni will be upgraded to modern requirement. In Mutare places like Sakubva and Rimuka in Kadoma and many other old suburbs around the country will go under what we can call urban renewal and regeneration.  The intention is to upgrade all houses to meet modern standards."

Mr Kuwanda said land developers will be invited to partner Government in servicing stands on Government terms. He said the terms will "kill the cancer of enriching land barons at the expense of land seeker".
sundaynews