THE Bulawayo City Council has raised concern over more than 4 000 idle stands held by private developers and has moved to engage individual beneficiaries.
STAFF REPORTER
According to a council report, a total of 4 078 stands are with various private developers and most projects, whose execution overlapped from the Zimbabwe dollar era to the multi-currency era are at standstill.
Most of the stands are in Cowdray Park and Pumula South.
Council said the main challenge cited by developers who have been inactive is that funds they had derived from pre-sale of their stands during the Zim-dollar era had been eroded and are now finding it difficult to raise funds to complete their projects.
“Having said this, there are some who have been engaging their beneficiaries in a bid to get them to contribute funds to complete servicing. However, this has been met with a bit of resistance with beneficiaries insisting that council be roped in to complete servicing if they were to contribute,” reads part of a council report.
“Ways of addressing this are still being explored by council.”
The report listed Hawkflight Construction in Cowdray Park III, with 256 stands, Alpha Construction in Cowdray Park II with 500 stands, Zigeu in Cowdray Park III with 500 stands and PMTP in Cowdray Park III with 814stands.
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GG Hardware and Monologue have 116 and 118 stands in Cowdray Park III, respectively.
Also included are Bopse with 381 stands in Pumula South II, PMTP Pumula South III with 1 004, Mehluli Khumalo/Habek with 207 stands in the same area, Jaroots has 100 stands in Mahatshula North and Bulawayo Glass & Allied Products has 80 stands in Selborne Brooke.
“While there has been no activity on many of the above sites, council saw it fit to pass a resolution allowing it to engage the beneficiaries of the affected housing schemes, who had taken it upon themselves to raise funds to secure the resources to complete outstanding works,” council said.
In his new year message, Bulawayo mayor Martin Moyo said last year, a total of 2 572 stands were allocated in Cowdray Park Hlalani Kuhle and a further 1 052 stands have been identified and are pending allocation in Emhlangeni Phase II medium-density and Magwegwe North.
The housing waiting list is close to 100 000.
