700 Cowdray Park residents to lose houses

MORE than 700 families risk losing their houses after the Government reportedly directed beneficiaries of the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai housing scheme in Cowdray Park, Bulawayo to pay $4 000 for the houses, indicating that the money they paid in the past was for rentals.

The residents alleged that when they were initially allocated the houses they were told to pay $15 a month, which was meant to pay the builders, a figure which later increased to $50. In 2014 they were told to stop paying that figure to the Government since the project had since been handed over to council. When they were allocated the houses, they were told that they own them and they only needed to pay monthly fees for builders.

However, in the latest development, residents last week got letters from the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing informing them that all along they were renting the houses and were now required to pay $3 920 each for them to own the houses and a further $1 200, which they allegedly owe in rentals.

Some of the affected "owners" yesterday held a meeting in the suburb where they appointed a committee led by their local councillor, Collet Ndhlovu with the mandate of engaging both the Ministry and the Bulawayo City Council over the issue.

He said from their research, the directive was only affecting the Bulawayo project as in other cities, the Government has made it clear that people who benefited from the project were the owners and have been given title deeds.

"When it was initially decided that residents stop paying the $50 monthly fee to the Ministry in 2014, it was when the logic behind this payment was questioned because the project was handed over to council in 2012, so it did not make any sense that they continue paying to the Ministry as they had no say towards the running of the project.

"If you remember this project was done through a donation of land which the Government received from council and it was meant for the poor who could not afford purchasing housing stands. Now where does the Government think these people will get the money? I am sure that all this is from someone trying to paint the Government in bad light," said Clr Ndhlovu.

He said as a committee they would initially approach the Public Works office in Bulawayo to try to resolve the impasse and if that fails they would then engage the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Saviour Kasukuwere.

A residents' representative who identified himself as Mr Moyo said they had decided not to honour what the Ministry was demanding, noting that some of them started staying at the houses when they were incomplete and had to finish them after the contractor allegedly disappeared.

"Honestly, for someone to tell us that all along we were lodgers does not make sense at all. We installed electricity on our own, we are also contributing towards the servicing of roads in the area. We are not going to pay anything because we know someone wants to steal from us. They cannot even evict us because we developed the incomplete houses which they gave us," said Mr Moyo.

The project was handed over to council in 2012 in keeping with the May 2009 Cabinet resolution to have councils complete the projects. This was after the Government initiated Operation Restore Order, popularly known as Murambatsvina, which saw most houses built outside council authority being destroyed countrywide. The operation culminated in the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai scheme, a Government initiative which sought to provide decent accommodation to low-income earners.

In the past years beneficiaries have locked horns with officials from the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai project and the Bulawayo Home Seekers Consortium Trust, accusing them of double allocation of stands, poor administration and failure to provide adequate service.