admin“We are working well with the beneficiaries that were victims of double allocations and we hope that all the people will be assisted.”
Clr Ndlovu said the committee had recommended that those beneficiaries that lost stands as a result of double allocation should be allocated new stands.
The council had earlier on made available 1 670 stands to beneficiaries that lost stands as a result of double allocations.
The Government handed over the Cowdray Park Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai Housing Project to the council in March this year, in line with a 2009 Cabinet resolution.
After the handover, a meeting co-chaired by directors of Engineering Services and Housing and Community Services was held and attended by officials from the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development and Home Seekers Consortium Trust to map the way forward.
The Government and the Bulawayo City Council recently embarked on an audit of the disputed housing stands after Hlalani Kuhle officials repossessed about 2 300 stands from beneficiaries in the suburb on the grounds they were not paying developmental fees to the consortium.
Meanwhile, the beneficiaries of the project have complained that the local authority was now charging them exorbitant money for the stands compared to what they were being charged by the consortium.
Those who spoke to Chronicle said the council recently announced hat each stand owner would pay $50 per month for the next five years.
The beneficiaries said this meant that they were now buying the stands yet the stands were allocated free when the Government-initiated project started in 2006 as it was meant to benefit low-income earners.
“We do not understand what the council wants us to do because now we are being made to pay $50 per month. It is as if we are buying stands yet they were allocated to us for free because we could not afford to buy. We will not pay that money because it is more than what we were paying previously,” said a beneficiary.
In response, Clr Ndhlovu said the beneficiaries could have misunderstood the programme because the money was meant for servicing the stands.
He said the figure was a bit higher because the council targeted to complete servicing in five years time.
“The exercise to correct the double allocation problem is going on well as many have been given new stands as we speak. It seems beneficiaries did not understand the whole setup in the first place, that money is for servicing and not for buying the stands. The director of Engineering Services told them recently that they were supposed to pay for servicing of the stands.
“It is true that the figure is higher compared to what beneficiaries in other suburbs are paying because in Cowdray Park there is no existing infrastructure and everything has to be done from scratch. They could have paid less if the period had been stretched to about 10 years,” said Clr Ndhlovu.
Online Reporter