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Writes Elvis Dumba
Chinhoyi – The government is pushing to provide decent accommodation for its workforce, with a cabinet minister calling for the speedy completion of housing projects in the country to meet this goal. This effort is part of the government’s broader initiative to ensure its employees and general populace have access to proper housing, aligning with the vision of achieving an upper-middle-income society by 2030.
Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities, Zhemu Soda, said housing provision is one of the key players in the attainment of National Development Strategy objective
“As we gravitate towards the achievement of an upper middle-income society, provision of decent accommodation is one of the issues that is very close to the heart of His Excellency, President Mnangagwa and you will notice that among the pillars that support National Development Strategies, housing delivery is one and there is no way people can become an upper-middle-income society without accommodation and it is something we are prioritizing as government, ” he said.
Minister Soda, who was on a tour of housing projects in the Mashonaland West Province recently, said he will engage the Ministry of Finance to aid in the acceleration of the completion of the housing projects through timeous provision of financial resources to ensure that beneficiaries benefit.
“The second republic has adopted the culture of completing projects on time and we have to align ourselves to the intentions and objectives of every project and especially the projects that are supposed to benefit people should be prioritized and completed,” he said.
The Minister toured the Crownlands Housing Project in Chinhoyi before proceeding to the Kasese Housing Project in Kariba. He is confident that the projects will be completed as soon as possible.
The Crownland Housing Park project was initiated by the then Ministry of Local Government, Public Works, and National Housing following the allocation of 100 Ha of land by the State Lands Office in 2016 with a target of 1252 beneficiaries with a layout plan for the same being prepared and approved by the then Department of Physical Planning in 2018.
However, a portion of the layout plan was implemented with 665 beneficiaries allocated stands while the other portion covering about 43 Ha was curved off following encroachment by an abutting farmer.
A contractor, Masimba Holdings, was engaged in December 2018 to service 57 Ha with servicing works commencing and scheduled to be completed in four years.
During the tour, it was revealed that at least water reticulation trenching and laying for Crownlands Housing Park is now 75% complete. Overall, progress for road bases is at 72%, and the project’s overall project percentage progress is at 58% whilst for Kasese Housing Project in Kariba overall progress is at 54%.
The Minister’s call for timeous disbursement of financial resources towards project completion comes after progress has been stalling with the Kasese housing contractor suspending works in May 2024 due to inconsistent disbursement of funds.
Mashonaland West Provincial Secretary, Josphat Jaji, said the intervention by the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities to speed up the completion of the housing projects in the province will go a long way to ensure people have decent accommodation.
Ayiri Gudyanga, one of the beneficiaries of the Crownlands Housing Park Project said beneficiaries applaud government commitment towards the completion of the projects as this will go a long way in providing decent accommodation to civil servants.
“We are happy with the commitment of the government to complete these projects. As civil servants, we have been facing tough times with rentals, forcing some of us to transfer to other areas. The completion of the projects will also help to tame the issue of squatters and illegal occupants of land,” he said.
