adminHazel Ndebele Midlands Reporter
CHITUKUKO Hotel (formerly Cecil Hotel) in Gweru has been turned into lodgings for university students, former Midlands Hotel workers and other tenants. The facility, which was closed as a hotel in June 2011, has lost its lustre of yester-year as it is in a sorry state. The dilapidated and filthy structure is now home to sister hotel, Midlands Hotel’s former workers who were retrenched after going for months without salaries.
Chitukuko and Midlands Hotel are run by Gweru mayor, Councillor Hamutendi Kombayi.
A second year Midlands State University student who is tenant at the once mighty hotel said she was sharing a standard room with a college mate.
The student said they were paying $70 per head monthly for the room which has a bathroom.
“We pay our rentals to a secretary at the Midlands Hotel,” said the student.
The student said there were no major challenges at the former hotel save for its filthiness and the noise at night.
“The noise and the filth affect our studies at times. But we are getting used to the environment and adjusting our study routines accordingly,” said the student.
Our source revealed that there were also some former Midlands Hotel workers staying at Chitukuko. The other tenants who are neither students nor former workers are paying $140 per room.
A tenant said the money covers water and electricity.
A former Midlands Hotel employee who resides at Chitukuko said they only relocated to the fallen inn as a way of recovering the money they are owed by the former employer hotel in salaries arrears. They are reportedly paying $40 to cover rates, electricity and water usage.
The former workers are, however, confined to one room each where about 13 people share a single toilet.
“We relocated to this hotel after going for some months without receiving pay. Management told us to move into the hotel as compensation for not receiving our salaries,” said one of the former workers.
All the residents at the dilapidated hotel were unwilling to have their names published describing their situation as degrading. They even shied away from the camera when the news crew was shooting pictures of the place.
Ricky Dabvu, the Midlands Hotel general manager, confirmed that they have turned the dilapidated Chitukuko into lodgings.
He said:
“There are plans to re-open the hotel but the place is currently occupied by former Midlands Hotel workers and a few Midlands State University students. Our move was meant to ensure that the place does not lie idle”.
Dabvu, however, denied there were families sharing a single toilet.
“I was only informed about the 48 rooms that have bathrooms. These are the ones that are occupied. I am not aware of six families sharing a single toilet or tenants staying in rooms that do not have their own sanitary facilities,” he said.
Online Reporter