BCC steps up efforts to curb illegal, dilapidated structures

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has enlisted the help of rangers and urged members of the public to report any unauthorised developments in a bid to tackle the increasing number of dangerous and illegal structures in the city.

This is part of the council’s ongoing efforts to enforce municipal by-laws and ensure the safety of residents. According to the latest council report, director of housing and community services, Mr Dictor Khumalo, stressed the challenges faced by the department in dealing with unauthorised buildings in the city.

Of the 195 dilapidated buildings in Bulawayo, only 20 have fully complied with the regulations, while 69 partially complied and 106 failed to comply altogether.

Mr Khumalo identified churches, schools and car parks as the main culprits behind the illegal constructions, with many choosing to bypass the required approval processes altogether.

The department has been issuing notices to halt these unauthorised developments until all necessary measures have been taken, including the approval of building plans and payment of the US$572,50 building penalty.

“The department on the other hand was heavily handicapped on issues of inadequate staff levels and inadequate vehicles on the part of building inspectors. These challenges made it difficult for the incumbent officers to effectively carry out monitoring work, which should result in the prevention of such developments or capturing these at their initial stages and preventing them,” he said.

According to council records, 1 729 inspections had been carried out in September this year. From these inspections, 46 buildings were issued with occupation certificates and 20 advertising signs were also identified and accordingly processed.

“A possible US$11 535 had been raised from building inspections, advertising signs and other building control activities captured in this report. However, it should be noted that there was a great potential for the collection of the much needed revenue if transport and staff challenges negatively affecting our building control section were to be addressed,” read the council minutes.

“Results of these challenges were also slowly showing in the surging of unauthorised building works as monitoring activities could not be effectively undertaken.”

To mitigate the challenges, the department has engaged the services of rangers to force them to start processes of compliance.
BCC has also requested the public to be the whistle-blowers for any suspicious developments and requested councillors to make residents aware of the importance of complying with building by- laws.

The department said it will engage all council departments’ staff to report any suspicious building developments.

“These issues were flagged as some developments were a public threat. As a result of the challenges given in the report, it was therefore of paramount importance that illegal or unauthorised developments were timely reported to ensure compliance,” read the report.

In September, the department had processed 289 building plans. Of these, 177 building plans worth US$6 290 538 were approved while 112 were referred back for corrections.