10 000 houses for Harare by year-end

Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent
Harare City Council, through its housing department intends to issue 10 000 residential units by the end of the year, an official has said.

In an interview, the city’s principal housing officer Mr Edgar Dzehonye said meeting the targeted number of housing units was part of their strategic plan for this year.

“For the first time, the Department of Housing has done a departmental strategic plan and my division has been tasked with the responsibility to provide plus or minus 10 000 residential units by December 31.

“So we are working to make sure that we deliver those houses by the end of the year,” he said.

The housing units will be delivered through council’s pre-selling housing pay schemes.

“We have a new arrangement in which we are now saying instead of having housing cooperatives or self-managed housing schemes, as council we are now managing the pay schemes to ensure there is no misappropriation of funds,” said Mr Dzehonye.

The department has been resourced with a project management unit that consists of engineers and relevant technical personnel.

Council will provide some of the services while beneficiaries will supply the materials needed to reduce costs.

“So in some of the schemes council will be providing services of designs for water, sewer roads and storm water reticulation.

“The beneficiaries will only be parting away with finances that are targeted at providing the relevant materials that are going to be used.

“That will reduce the cost of providing houses because our departmental mission talks of the provision of adequate housing and in that context, cost is a very important aspect,” he said.

He added that labour would be relatively cheap because it will be subsidised by council.