BCC resumes pre-sale of stands

Business Editor
THE Bulawayo City Council has resumed the sale of stands on pre-sell projects with the involvement of the private sector after putting on hold the initiative in March this year.

The local authority is battling to contain the ballooning housing waiting list now standing at more than 100,000 amid swelling demand for accommodation.

The council had availed 882 stands in Luveve and 169 in Mahatshula last year but stopped selling them saying it wanted to acquire equipment to service the stands first.

According to the council’s latest monthly report, the local authority has sourced the funds to buy the equipment and is working on the tender process for procurement of servicing materials.

The Director of Engineering Services, Engineer Simela Dube, recommended that that “council rescinds its decision of March 5, 2014 where the sale of stands on pre-sale and contracting out servicing was put on hold so that the Director of Housing and Community Services (Isaiah Magagula) might proceed with sale of stands that were now ready for allocation”.

The council also agreed that servicing of projects where stands had been sold be tendered out for servicing.

“After the procurement of equipment, council and the private sector would complement each other in servicing the stands, where council would service projects and the private sector serviced others to achieve efficient delivery,” read the report.

However, councillors argued the process of acquiring equipment was lengthy as it involved tendering for the procurement in terms of the requirements of the State Procurement Board’s scrutiny, after which council would be given the green light to advertise the tender.

“The process might take another two months while the tendering, evaluation and award could take up to four-five months for the delivery of the equipment. When the equipment had been bought, it might not be possible for council to undertake a number of projects at the same time,” read the report.

The considered view was that to achieve increased numbers of stands produced and to be at more than one site at any given time, the local authority needed to review its strategy.

Apart from Mahatshula and Luveve stands, the council had a number of projects earmarked for pre-sale. The projects that were ready for pre-sale were Emhlangeni (562) and Magwegwe North (490) stands.

During discussions there were concerns that council now intended to alter its decision and do away with the purchase of own equipment and revert to tendering servicing of projects.

Deputy Mayor Gift Banda’s view was that the Department of Housing and Community Services “should identify the number of stands in the whole city and not offer piecemeal”.

He said this “would assist councillors to make informed decisions on whether to enter into partnership or not. To service an area of 200 stands was not attractive to developers and was costly. The core business of council was provision of houses and not stands”.

Other councillors insisted that the local authority should finalise procurement of its equipment for servicing stands as owners of the stands were demanding answers over delays in servicing the land.

Some suggested partnerships with the private sector under which council could pre-sell the stands and contract out servicing.

The other option was to engage private developers to service the stands and sell them while the third option was where developers could be awarded bonds and build houses.

Magagula said the principle of low cost housing no longer existed as it was determined by salary levels adding that with the levels of unemployment and informal employment the approach was impossible to determine.

Shortage of accommodation has been blamed for fuelling the sprouting of illegal structures and squatter settlements, which have become an eyesore for a modern city.