Chronicle Editor
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
IN the backdrop of a number of housing projects in Bulawayo that have been left hanging and are under arbitration, the local authority is considering introducing stringent conditions in the pre-sale facility including demanding a 50 percent deposit in forex paid upfront before issuance of offer letters.
Over the past months, the local authority has clashed with restless beneficiaries demanding that they be allocated their stands since they paid in full in United States dollars. However, council has reasoned that contracted developers reneged on their contracts to service their awarded areas citing lack of funds despite the beneficiaries having paid for the stands in full.
The private developers stopped working after failing to get paid in United States dollars by council at a time when the country was using the local currency rated at par with the US$. Some of the affected areas include Woodville, Emhlangeni, Emganwini and Magwegwe. In areas like Mahatshula North, the private developer did not complete working on the roads, with some of them left without tar.
Debating during a virtual full council meeting, councillors felt there was a need to come up with stringent conditions that will see developers meeting their end of the deal in setting up all the required services.
The city’s mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni said the local authority should take advantage of the Government’s policy which allowed them to charge and receive payment in foreign currency.
“I think we should consider reintroducing the pre-sale concept where we have stringent conditions. How we got into the problem of many developers who left projects hanging is that we were relaxed in our conditions where someone could be given an offer letter even before paying the required 35 percent of the asking price, this thereby delaying servicing of the area.
“If we relook into this concept and change our policies such that we even say the offer letter is given after paying 50 percent in foreign currency, I doubt we can face such challenges where residents start demonstrating demanding stands which they would have paid for in full to the developer,” said Clr Mguni.
The mayor said what the local authority should not forget was their mandate to provide accommodation to home seekers hence the need to come up with policies that will see more projects being completed
“What we should remember is that we have been promising residents that we will be delivering over 3 000 stands a year of which we are delivering less than ten percent of that figure because delivering housing is not allocating, what we have been doing is allocating people, we haven’t even commissioned a single project,” he said.
The deputy mayor, Clr Mlandu Ncube pointed out that they had done a similar facility in Selbourne Park where they insisted on the payment of stands in foreign currency. He said the local authority should come up with a similar experimental scheme in the high density suburbs to see how residents and developers will take it up.
“We need to appreciate that we had this scheme that we gave to private developers, where they pay council after servicing and selling those stands, we are not yet sure what it will yield as we are still in the process of studying. I was of an opinion that let’s identify land in the western suburbs, dispose of it via pre-sale where we demand that developers pay at least 50- percent upfront in foreign currency before they are given offer letters and see how the facility will perform,” said Clr Ncube.
The local authority recently reported that more than 3 000 stands that were being developed by private developers have been left uncompleted with the local authority forced to take legal action to resolve the impasse.
Some of the projects affected included Emganwini’s 367 stands, Tshabalala (44), Magwegwe West (390), Woodville (144) and Emhlangeni Phase two (502).
Bongani Ndlovu