New city takes shape in Umguza Rural District

A NEW city named Kings City with state-of-the-art facilities including shopping malls and gated townhouses is taking shape on the outskirts of Bulawayo in Umguza Rural District.

The development of Kings City is a partnership between Umguza RDC and Radar Properties and the first phase of 474 housing units in Windsor Park, out of 10 000 units has been completed.

Kings City, located 8km from Bulawayo city centre, will have its façade on Gwanda Road and Bulawayo Drive and Radar Properties,  is  also rehabilitating the access road  to ease congestion in the city by diverting traffic from the Bulawayo-Harare highway before entering the city centre.

It is sitting on a 2 100ha piece of land and the 10 000 residential stands will accommodate 42 000 people.

There will be townhouses, a shopping mall, a medical centre, an office park, a social club and an amusement park, schools, and churches among other high-end services in line with Umguza RDC's vision of becoming a local authority with exceptional service delivery, state of the art infrastructure, and enabling environment.

Giving an outline of investment opportunities in Umguza at the recent Matebeleland North Diaspora Investment Conference  in Lupane, Umguza Rural District Council administrator Mr Vusa Sikhosana said the local authority is undertaking various development projects including a 20MW solar plant on a 200ha piece of land in Kensington, including a multi-purpose sporting complex with accommodation facilities for sport tourism on a 10ha piece of land in Ntabazinduna.

The creation of a satellite town in Ntabazinduna where the layout plan for servicing 980 high-density stands has been approved, including a township with 500 stands in Nyamandlovu where a processing and packaging plant for horticultural produce and  water purification plant for bottled water  from Nyamandlovu Aquifer would be set up.

There is a big shopping mall being worked on in Douglasdale.

Mr Sikhosana said the local authority has vast land for partnerships with investors and Radar Properties is leading by example in that regard and transforming the Umguza district.

"Umguza is on the rise and we  have land so we invite investors  to come and invest in Umguza. We will give them the land for solar projects," he said.

"The nation has a huge housing backlog and we have land through which we are saying investors should come and we help our country deliver on housing. Come and partner Umguza so we develop satellite towns in the district."

Speaking during the same event, Radar Properties representative Mr Walter Zimunya said there won't be the need for people to go to Bulawayo as the future of real estate and development is beckoning in Umguza.

"Kings  City is the biggest land development project happening in Matebeleland North. It has 2 100ha of land being developed and going to deliver 10 000 residential stands to accommodate 42 000 people resident within the city alone," he said.

The second phase will start in June next year. Mr Zimunya said Radar Properties, a subsidiary  of Radar Holdings which also owns Macdonald Bricks, was excited to develop Umguza and Matebeleland North.

The two-day conference, which was held under the theme "Matebeleland North, a hub of untapped Opportunities", was organised to encourage Zimbabweans in the diaspora to come and invest back home.

Mr Zimunya said Phase 2 will include Kingsbury Estate Gated Community with 328 stands and 165 of them are fully serviced and 163 are currently being serviced.

The townhouses will have modern architecture, fully serviced roads, water and sewer, among other services.

The new city will also be connected to the Gwayi-Shangani Dam water supply pipeline, according to plans, Mr Zimunya said.

There will be 15 commercial centres covering 42ha with shopping malls, and business facilities to house small and medium enterprises and multiple-scale businesses.