BULAWAYO City Council’s building control section has been crippled by a critical shortage of service vehicles, latest council minutes have revealed.
A council report of the building control section’s monthly statistics indicates that some of the vehicles have not been attended to since they broke down a few months ago.
“The section was still handicapped in terms of vehicles for use in operations as the complementing council vehicles had been down for more than three months,” reads the report.
The report revealed that the council dealt with over 1200 building plans in which 155 were referred to other departments and the process was completed on 404 of them.
At least 290 building plans worth US$6 572 798 were approved.
In July, the council handled a total of 1223 building plans.
“Of these, 155 were referred to other departments and were still to complete the process while 404 completed the process,” the report read.
“Of the 404 plans that completed the process, 290 building plans with a value of US$6 572 798 were approved while 114 were referred back for corrections.”
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It added: “There was an increase of 44.29 % on approved plans compared to the total approved in June 2025.
“A total of 248 building plans with a value of US$5 173 162 were submitted in July 2025, a decrease of 28.32% compared to last month’s figure.
“A possible total of US$51 731.62 was, therefore, raised from plan submissions as plan submission fees.”
The report also stated that a total of 1 653 inspections were carried out in July 2025, constituting a 7.13% increase from the previous month.
Council said 53 buildings were issued with occupation certificates, 10 dilapidated buildings were captured and 6 public buildings were assessed.
“A possible total of US$14 932 was raised from building inspections and other building control activities captured in this report,” the report said.
Bulawayo City Council is currently battling with over 140 000 housing waiting lists while the demand for housing continues to escalate.
