News / Local
Over 2 000 beneficiaries lose housing stands in Cowdray Park
06 Feb 2012 at 18:40hrs | Views
Over two thousand Hlalani Kuhle Government Housing Project beneficiaries have lost housing stands in Cowdray Park, amid revelations many stands now have multiple owners, the Chronicle reported.
There is growing tension in the suburb as the original beneficiaries accuse the Bulawayo Home Seekers' Consortium Trust (BHSCT) of allocating their stands to other people.
Those affected claim they have reported the matter to the police but without help and some have threatened to axe each other over the stands.
While officials from BHSCT said the stands were repossessed because the owners were not paying monthly subscriptions, the beneficiaries allege their stands were being sold.
Retired Colonel Thabani Khumalo, the chairman of the project, recently said they were repossessing undeveloped stands and those whose owners have not been paying development and administration fees. He said a slab, box and foundation were not recognised as development.
Mostly affected are members of the People's Housing Cooperative, formerly Mfelandawonye.
In 2005, the Government allocated more than 7 000 housing stands to home seekers in Cowdray Park under the self-help scheme dubbed Operation Hlalani Kuhle to afford cheaper housing to the poor.
There are 12 segments in the Cowdray Park project, with about 7 860 supposed beneficiaries.
Each beneficiary is supposed to make a once off payment of $150 for buying and monthly subscription fees are pegged at five dollars per stand.
Some of the beneficiaries who lost their stands have implicated one Matavire, who they said they gave different amounts of money, which he was supposed to pay to the consortium.
Matavire was recently named in another scandal where an injiva returned home and found his house roofed when he had left it at window level as he went to South Africa.
The beneficiaries said Matavire allegedly claims to be a Bulawayo City Council employee based at the Tower Block and also claims to have an office at the Tredgold Building alleging the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement employs him.
Officials from the city council and BHSCT said he was not their employee.
Matavire recently promised to visit Chronicle offices when contacted for comment, but he never did and his number has not been reachable.
Chronicle caught up with some of the beneficiaries who expressed discontent about repossession of the stands.
Some said they were shocked to find some people building on their stands while others said they found the boxes they had built.
It also came out that some had lost hope and left the stands after discovering that some people had started building on their stands and could not find any joy when they approached officials.
Mrs Ottilia Moyo who benefited in 2006 said she got the shock of her life when she found some people digging at her stand despite the fact that she had built a four-roomed box.
"I was phoned by neighbours last week and when we came we found somebody digging and had destroyed our bricks. The stand bears my name in the city council bills and the local authority has told us to go ahead and build but the consortium says it now belongs to somebody else and we should stop any work," said Mrs Moyo.
"My builder was banned from doing any construction work in the suburb. They destroyed the box we built and started digging another foundation. Why do they want to give me another stand instead of giving that to the person they gave mine?"
She said the matter was an abuse of the Government project.
"This project was a Government initiative for the poor to get houses but now the poor are being made to suffer. The consortium police came to the stand and arrested me for building against their will and I am here as an accused person. They said we were not paying yet I paid $50 to Matavire who works here and he said he would pay the money but I am surprised to hear that I did not pay," said Mrs Moyo, who was at the consortium offices.
Some builders were busy replacing the wall that had been destroyed at Mrs Moyo's stand.
Neighbours also said they were not happy about the issue, alleging the consortium had targeted Mrs Moyo's stand because of its size as a corner stand.
They said a certain elderly beneficiary, Gogo Agnes Dube, had relocated to the rural areas after she was constantly threatened by the person who was given the stand and because she had no one to fight on her behalf.
Another beneficiary only identified as Mrs Nkomazana reportedly confronted the person who was given her stand and promised not to give up.
"Things were difficult when we got these stands and we could not do any development work at the pace they wanted us to do. We cannot let this continue. The police told us that they would not involve themselves thina sisebenza nzima kanje, sesizagamulana yikho lapho abazangena khona," said a neighbour who said she refused to let go of her stand.
Another beneficiary, Mr Sydney Khanye, said his stand had been tampered with more than three times by people he had never seen.
One Ms Wadzanai Pande, who lives in Emakhandeni and a second beneficiary, said she was offered a stand last year but was fighting with the first beneficiary who had started building.
She said she feared for her life after the person allegedly promised to deal with her if she continued building.
Contacted for comment, BHSCT project coordinator Mr Mkhululi Nyathi said most of those whose stands were repossessed were not aware of the conditions of the project.
He said the repossession of stands was not unique but in line with Government policy on the project.
"People got into a self-aided programme where they should service and build houses for themselves. Beneficiaries have to contribute and there was that condition whereby those who do not adhere to conditions would have their stands repossessed," he said.
He said they had engaged the Government and city council to come up with a solution to the challenge.
"People got the stands through cooperatives and their representatives were not conveying correct information and as a result they did not know about the conditions thereby causing challenges. We have brought in the Government and BCC so that people understand that the objective is not to repossess the stands," said Mr Nyathi.
"We employ members so that they can raise subscriptions and have something to pay with. Those who have lost stands should come forward and have their names written if they are interested so that they are reconsidered."
He said the Government and council had agreed to avail more land so that those whose stands were repossessed could be given other stands.
He said it was not possible for the consortium to sell the stands because they were not accessible without one being in the waiting list but acknowledged there were some individuals who were corruptly allocating them.
He urged those affected to approach the offices and avoid confrontation.
Questions sent to the BCC senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu via e-mail last week had not been responded to by the time of going to press.
There is growing tension in the suburb as the original beneficiaries accuse the Bulawayo Home Seekers' Consortium Trust (BHSCT) of allocating their stands to other people.
Those affected claim they have reported the matter to the police but without help and some have threatened to axe each other over the stands.
While officials from BHSCT said the stands were repossessed because the owners were not paying monthly subscriptions, the beneficiaries allege their stands were being sold.
Retired Colonel Thabani Khumalo, the chairman of the project, recently said they were repossessing undeveloped stands and those whose owners have not been paying development and administration fees. He said a slab, box and foundation were not recognised as development.
Mostly affected are members of the People's Housing Cooperative, formerly Mfelandawonye.
In 2005, the Government allocated more than 7 000 housing stands to home seekers in Cowdray Park under the self-help scheme dubbed Operation Hlalani Kuhle to afford cheaper housing to the poor.
There are 12 segments in the Cowdray Park project, with about 7 860 supposed beneficiaries.
Each beneficiary is supposed to make a once off payment of $150 for buying and monthly subscription fees are pegged at five dollars per stand.
Some of the beneficiaries who lost their stands have implicated one Matavire, who they said they gave different amounts of money, which he was supposed to pay to the consortium.
Matavire was recently named in another scandal where an injiva returned home and found his house roofed when he had left it at window level as he went to South Africa.
The beneficiaries said Matavire allegedly claims to be a Bulawayo City Council employee based at the Tower Block and also claims to have an office at the Tredgold Building alleging the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement employs him.
Officials from the city council and BHSCT said he was not their employee.
Matavire recently promised to visit Chronicle offices when contacted for comment, but he never did and his number has not been reachable.
Chronicle caught up with some of the beneficiaries who expressed discontent about repossession of the stands.
Some said they were shocked to find some people building on their stands while others said they found the boxes they had built.
It also came out that some had lost hope and left the stands after discovering that some people had started building on their stands and could not find any joy when they approached officials.
Mrs Ottilia Moyo who benefited in 2006 said she got the shock of her life when she found some people digging at her stand despite the fact that she had built a four-roomed box.
"I was phoned by neighbours last week and when we came we found somebody digging and had destroyed our bricks. The stand bears my name in the city council bills and the local authority has told us to go ahead and build but the consortium says it now belongs to somebody else and we should stop any work," said Mrs Moyo.
"My builder was banned from doing any construction work in the suburb. They destroyed the box we built and started digging another foundation. Why do they want to give me another stand instead of giving that to the person they gave mine?"
She said the matter was an abuse of the Government project.
"This project was a Government initiative for the poor to get houses but now the poor are being made to suffer. The consortium police came to the stand and arrested me for building against their will and I am here as an accused person. They said we were not paying yet I paid $50 to Matavire who works here and he said he would pay the money but I am surprised to hear that I did not pay," said Mrs Moyo, who was at the consortium offices.
Some builders were busy replacing the wall that had been destroyed at Mrs Moyo's stand.
Neighbours also said they were not happy about the issue, alleging the consortium had targeted Mrs Moyo's stand because of its size as a corner stand.
They said a certain elderly beneficiary, Gogo Agnes Dube, had relocated to the rural areas after she was constantly threatened by the person who was given the stand and because she had no one to fight on her behalf.
Another beneficiary only identified as Mrs Nkomazana reportedly confronted the person who was given her stand and promised not to give up.
"Things were difficult when we got these stands and we could not do any development work at the pace they wanted us to do. We cannot let this continue. The police told us that they would not involve themselves thina sisebenza nzima kanje, sesizagamulana yikho lapho abazangena khona," said a neighbour who said she refused to let go of her stand.
Another beneficiary, Mr Sydney Khanye, said his stand had been tampered with more than three times by people he had never seen.
One Ms Wadzanai Pande, who lives in Emakhandeni and a second beneficiary, said she was offered a stand last year but was fighting with the first beneficiary who had started building.
She said she feared for her life after the person allegedly promised to deal with her if she continued building.
Contacted for comment, BHSCT project coordinator Mr Mkhululi Nyathi said most of those whose stands were repossessed were not aware of the conditions of the project.
He said the repossession of stands was not unique but in line with Government policy on the project.
"People got into a self-aided programme where they should service and build houses for themselves. Beneficiaries have to contribute and there was that condition whereby those who do not adhere to conditions would have their stands repossessed," he said.
He said they had engaged the Government and city council to come up with a solution to the challenge.
"People got the stands through cooperatives and their representatives were not conveying correct information and as a result they did not know about the conditions thereby causing challenges. We have brought in the Government and BCC so that people understand that the objective is not to repossess the stands," said Mr Nyathi.
"We employ members so that they can raise subscriptions and have something to pay with. Those who have lost stands should come forward and have their names written if they are interested so that they are reconsidered."
He said the Government and council had agreed to avail more land so that those whose stands were repossessed could be given other stands.
He said it was not possible for the consortium to sell the stands because they were not accessible without one being in the waiting list but acknowledged there were some individuals who were corruptly allocating them.
He urged those affected to approach the offices and avoid confrontation.
Questions sent to the BCC senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu via e-mail last week had not been responded to by the time of going to press.
Source - TC
