herald

Stakeholders in Zimbabwe’s housing finance sector have formed a trust to mobilise funding for construction of houses for poor urbanites and rehabilitation of colonial style single sex hostels in Mbare and Makokoba.

The National Housing Development and Rehabilitation Trust brings together stakeholders in the finance, local authorities and engineering sectors to mobilise pro-poor housing.

Former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor and current Cabs Building Society chairman Dr Leonard Tsumba heads the trust.

Presenting a paper on Zimbabwe’s Urban Renewal project here last week, Dr Tsumba said the situation at the hostels was untenable.

In other countries, the programme is referred to as slum upgrading. Dr Tsumba said the hostels were built for single male labourers and were not gender sensitive. With the attainment of independence in 1980, Government repealed the anti-influx laws resulting in families of the occupants joining them thus overstretching the facilities.

"There is no pride living in these places," he said.

He said in Mbare and Makokoba, the trust would build two new blocks at a cost of US$10 million each while each hostel will cost about US$3 million to upgrade.

"We want to separate the children from their parents at bed time. We want them to sleep separately," Dr Tsumba said.

National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Fidelis Mhashu said official statistics indicated that two million people registered for accommodation. "We need assistance. as Government, we cannot go it alone. We need the participation of the private sector and international private developers," he said. He assured delegates that their money and investments would be safe in Zimbabwe.

However, Ms Sheila Magara, a national co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe Homeless Federation and a resident of the Mbare Hostels, expressed fears that some of her colleagues would lose their apartments. She said Zimbabwean cities were failing to integrate the poor, giving examples of silent evictions being effected by Harare City councillors.

Ms Patience Mudimu, the national projects co-ordinator with Dialogue on Shelter for the Homeless in Zimbabwe Trust, concurred adding that the existence of big housing waiting lists indicated that cities and towns were failing to include the poor. "If the house is not connected to sewer and water, a road, near a school or health facility, then there is no inclusion," she said.