Civil servants get stands in Shurugwi

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SHURUGWI-BASED civil servants got 500 residential stands through the assistance of a Gweru company, River Valley Properties.

SHURUGWI-BASED civil servants got 500 residential stands through the assistance of a Gweru company, River Valley Properties.

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The beneficiaries were handed title deeds to the properties by Labour and Social Welfare minister Nicholas Goche at national Public Servants’ Day commemorations in the mining town on Friday.

Goche applauded River Valley Properties and other private players that partnered with the government in such projects saying they were helping improve the living conditions of civil servants.

“This move should be applauded as such partnership helps raise the living standards of government employees,” Goche said.

River Valley Properties chief executive officer Smelly Dube said her company was committed to coming up with affordable housing projects for civil servants to help them own homes.

She said workers in the public service contributed a lot to the country’s economic turnaround programmes and as such deserved decent accommodation.

“Five hundred civil servants in Shurugwi are going to benefit through residential stands and already two of the stands have taps with running water,” Dube said.

“We are saying though civil servants might not be earning a lot, that little they get with the help of private developers who get land from the government will see dreams to own houses come true.

She said the Shurugwi project was the fifth for civil servants countrywide adding that to date 16 000 (civil servants) have benefited through residential stands with some already having moved in while other houses were at different stages of development.

Dube said the housing scheme was in line with ZimAsset which encourages public-private-partnership for the construction of 125 000 housing units.