News / Local
Mahatshula East suburb takes shape
12 Jul 2023 at 03:16hrs | Views
DRIVING along the bustling Bulawayo-Harare Highway, one cannot help but notice the reddish-brown dust emanating a few metres away from the road just after Mahatshula suburb.
So heavy is the natural smog that one might mistake it for a cloud of dust arising from a blast emanating from a mining operation. But alas, it is dust forming from construction vehicles excavating and servicing soon-to-be-commissioned residential stands in the new Mahatshula East suburb.
The neighbourhood, which is earmarked to house about 650 fully serviced stands, is on a daily basis riddled with men and women carrying heavy construction "artillery" and are clad in red worksuits.
Their presence in the neighbourhood immediately snares one's curiosity, with the astounding effort being put to develop the area under a short period of time.
The massive construction works being carried out in the suburb are part of Bulawayo City Council's motions to service various residential stands in the city targeting to service at least 5 000 stands, as it races to clear a housing backlog, which stands at 125 000.
The local authority, through a local contractor, Enock Construction and Land Moving Equipment, began servicing the land a few months ago.
The council's corporate communications manager, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, confirmed the development, saying Enock Construction and Earthmoving
Equipment would be responsible for servicing the medium-density residential stands.
She said once servicing of the stands was complete council will then release the value of stands.
"The costs will be released after the project has been completed. They are medium-density stands and people on the City of Bulawayo housing list are eligible to purchase," said Mrs Mpofu.
"The projected completion is 18 months and is expected to be completed by the 23rd September 2024."
Last year, the Bulawayo City Council availed more than 1 600 housing stands across the city, meant to be developed as the city upped its housing development strategy in a bid to reduce the housing backlog.
The housing backlog in the city has been a cause for concern over the past few years and this has further been exacerbated by a number of private developers that have abandoned their projects leaving the local authority with the task of completing the projects.
This has left beneficiaries and the city council at loggerheads after the latter demanded that the former pays for the completion of the projects using hard cash. Council, thus, awarded a number of stands in the city to private developers following the success of a housing development strategy, where developers submitted expressions of interest and then were required to use their own funds to develop areas of interest.
One of the companies that had submitted papers for consideration was Stelix Civils Private Limited, which failed in the development of 502 stands in Emhlangeni Phase 2 with the beneficiaries being part of those still at loggerheads with the local authority.
A total of 118 high-density residential stands were awarded in Emganwini that were given to TCI International, while 460 more high-density residential stands in the same suburb were under Heavenview Properties, 650 medium-density residential stands in Mahatshula East under Enock Construction while Natwecraft Private Limited will service 453 high-density residential stands in Luveve.
TCI International and Natwecraft last year managed to commission stands that were developed under a similar scheme in Emganwini. In a report last year, the council invited interested companies to submit valid paperwork for consideration.
"Due to the increasing housing backlog in the city, the City of Bulawayo invited companies to submit proposals for the development of residential stands. In terms of the Expressions of Interest the developers are to fully service the stands that would be made available to them with their own funds and recoup their monies from the proceeds of the sale of the stands," reads part of the report.
"The stands are to be sold to beneficiaries on the council waiting list after completion of servicing, after which the developer would recoup his monies with council getting the intrinsic value of the land from the proceeds of the stand sales."
According to the report, BCC is now mandated to enter into a service agreement with the prospective developers. It was stated that developers must not collect or receive any payments from the purchasers before the stands had been fully serviced and any violation of the clause will lead to the cancellation of the agreement.
Developers under the clause are required to deduct and remit to council the cost of the intrinsic land value and town planning charges per stand. All developers are also expected to title survey and fully service the stands with roads, sewer, and water, with an environmental impact assessment expected to be carried out and submitted to the Environmental Management Agency for approval before any works were carried out.
So heavy is the natural smog that one might mistake it for a cloud of dust arising from a blast emanating from a mining operation. But alas, it is dust forming from construction vehicles excavating and servicing soon-to-be-commissioned residential stands in the new Mahatshula East suburb.
The neighbourhood, which is earmarked to house about 650 fully serviced stands, is on a daily basis riddled with men and women carrying heavy construction "artillery" and are clad in red worksuits.
Their presence in the neighbourhood immediately snares one's curiosity, with the astounding effort being put to develop the area under a short period of time.
The massive construction works being carried out in the suburb are part of Bulawayo City Council's motions to service various residential stands in the city targeting to service at least 5 000 stands, as it races to clear a housing backlog, which stands at 125 000.
The local authority, through a local contractor, Enock Construction and Land Moving Equipment, began servicing the land a few months ago.
The council's corporate communications manager, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, confirmed the development, saying Enock Construction and Earthmoving
Equipment would be responsible for servicing the medium-density residential stands.
She said once servicing of the stands was complete council will then release the value of stands.
"The costs will be released after the project has been completed. They are medium-density stands and people on the City of Bulawayo housing list are eligible to purchase," said Mrs Mpofu.
Last year, the Bulawayo City Council availed more than 1 600 housing stands across the city, meant to be developed as the city upped its housing development strategy in a bid to reduce the housing backlog.
The housing backlog in the city has been a cause for concern over the past few years and this has further been exacerbated by a number of private developers that have abandoned their projects leaving the local authority with the task of completing the projects.
This has left beneficiaries and the city council at loggerheads after the latter demanded that the former pays for the completion of the projects using hard cash. Council, thus, awarded a number of stands in the city to private developers following the success of a housing development strategy, where developers submitted expressions of interest and then were required to use their own funds to develop areas of interest.
One of the companies that had submitted papers for consideration was Stelix Civils Private Limited, which failed in the development of 502 stands in Emhlangeni Phase 2 with the beneficiaries being part of those still at loggerheads with the local authority.
A total of 118 high-density residential stands were awarded in Emganwini that were given to TCI International, while 460 more high-density residential stands in the same suburb were under Heavenview Properties, 650 medium-density residential stands in Mahatshula East under Enock Construction while Natwecraft Private Limited will service 453 high-density residential stands in Luveve.
TCI International and Natwecraft last year managed to commission stands that were developed under a similar scheme in Emganwini. In a report last year, the council invited interested companies to submit valid paperwork for consideration.
"Due to the increasing housing backlog in the city, the City of Bulawayo invited companies to submit proposals for the development of residential stands. In terms of the Expressions of Interest the developers are to fully service the stands that would be made available to them with their own funds and recoup their monies from the proceeds of the sale of the stands," reads part of the report.
"The stands are to be sold to beneficiaries on the council waiting list after completion of servicing, after which the developer would recoup his monies with council getting the intrinsic value of the land from the proceeds of the stand sales."
According to the report, BCC is now mandated to enter into a service agreement with the prospective developers. It was stated that developers must not collect or receive any payments from the purchasers before the stands had been fully serviced and any violation of the clause will lead to the cancellation of the agreement.
Developers under the clause are required to deduct and remit to council the cost of the intrinsic land value and town planning charges per stand. All developers are also expected to title survey and fully service the stands with roads, sewer, and water, with an environmental impact assessment expected to be carried out and submitted to the Environmental Management Agency for approval before any works were carried out.
Source - The Chronicle
