Gweru to relocate residents in wetlands

GWERU City Council is planning to resettle people who were allocated stands in wetlands at Mkoba 21 housing project, a senior council official has said.

Acting town clerk Vakai Chikwekwe told Southern Eye that council would allocate alternative stands to the affected residents.

"What we have discovered is that there are some people who were allocated stands on inhabitable land in the yet to be serviced Mkoba 21 housing project," Chikwekwe said during a Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association meeting last week.

"Obviously, we will work on modalities to ensure that such affected people are given stands elsewhere."

Mkoba 21 residential stands are yet to be serviced. In recent weeks, residents have been complaining that they felt short-changed since they purchased the land eight years ago.

Early this year, Gweru City Council indicated that land developers contracted by the local authority to service Mkoba 21 and Randolph Phase 1 residential stands had deferred the process because they were yet to obtain Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) certificates.

In January this year, deputy mayor Cleopas Shiri disclosed that out of the three developers — CASAS, Wackdrive and Sheasham, only one (Sheasham) managed to get an EIA certificate, adding that it was the only company on the ground.

In 2018, recipients of Mkoba 21 stands threatened to pull out of the scheme due to delays in servicing the area.

At the time, council indicated that it was looking for partners to speed up the process.