Bulawayo council, residents at loggerheads over US$ top fees

The Bulawayo City Council is at loggerheads with residents who bought housing stands in Magwegwe West and Pumula as far back as 2016 and are still waiting for the areas to be serviced.

According to the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA), the affected homeseekers are contemplating taking legal action after the local authority demanded that they top up the money they paid for the stands in foreign currency.

BPRA secretary for administration Thembelani Dube told Southern Eye on Sunday that the demands by council were in violation of agreements of sale it signed with the homeseekers.

"The top-up violates the initial agreements that the buyers had with the local authority during the time the stands were available," Dube said.

"Any deviation from that calls for legal action."

He said the association was waiting for feedback from the government after it submitted a petition on council's demands for top-up for stands that were bought a long time ago.

It was also established that the local authority is demanding as much as US$6 000 depending on the size of the stand in top up and is threatening to repossess the land over failure to pay the fees.

In December 2018, council approved the sale of housing stands in US dollars, a move widely rejected by residents.

Four years later, council says beneficiaries have to settle some outstanding fees in US dollars.

Dube said they were left with no option, but to approach the government.

He said council had done nothing to develop the stands in Magwegwe West and  Ntemba in Pumula, among other areas.

Bulawayo, like many urban areas in Zimbabwe, faces a huge housing backlog, which is attributed to the poor performance of the economy over the past two decades.