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reduce the national housing backlog that currently stands at 1,25million.
This backlog, as the President said, grew in part due to the failure by employers to provide housing for their workers.
Our cities and towns, like so many other urban centres in Africa, inherited a system that was never designed to cater for the indigenous majority, many of whom fall in the low-income bracket.
The picture is dire with Harare alone topping one million, a figure expected to rise by at least 5 percent every year if no urgent measures are taken to build more houses to cater for the majority low-income earners.
Provision of affordable low-income housing in both urban and peri-urban areas is an internationally proven solution to housing problems in the developing world.
This is the only way to curb the sprouting of squatter settlements on the periphery of cities and towns and all the ills of vice and disease that they bring.
It is common cause that we do not have a shortage of land in this country but what we seem to be lacking is innovation deficit after the west’s ruinous economic sanctions destroyed mortgage facilities and the capacity of building societies to embark on large-scale housing projects.
We have no doubt that we have the tools and knowhow to clear the housing backlog but our legislation has lagged behind.
The majority of our municipalities are still run under colonial by-laws that were designed to make it difficult for the indigenous man and woman to own anything or to even trade freely in urban settings.
But the power is now in our hands and it is high time we found ways of ensuring that every family has a roof over their heads.
One such way is the project that was launched by President Mugabe last week, a partnership between Government and the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe. We urge the private sector to follow the example set by diamond companies mining in Chiadzwa that have built state-of-the-art accommodation for villagers displaced to Arda Transau as well as other mining conglomerates like Zimplats that have developed Ngezi and Zvishavane’s Mimosa Mines.
An integrated approach to housing based on private and public sector partnership is a viable option but needs buy-in from experienced mortgage companies and municipalities that should provide land for development.
Such partnerships worked well before the turn of the millennium and experience has shown that once private companies are more adept than the public sector at enforcing mortgage repayment.
Housing is a basic human need and right, and one of the biggest expenses workers face through rentals, by dint of that housing provision is one of the most effective ways of raising worker morale.
Despite housing provision challenges faced by the South African government and the proliferation of shacks, South Africans have implemented successful initiatives in the provision of low-cost housing for ownership to the masses such as projects being run by Khuyasa and Johannesburg Housing Company.
Over the past 16 years, Johannesburg Housing Company has developed more than 3 200 rental housing units and today provides homes to more than 9 500 people in low- to middle-income communities.
It has built up a portfolio of 27 buildings – across the inner city and, most recently, reaching into Greater Johannesburg in response to the continuing demand for housing from a fast-growing urban population.
Johannesburg Housing Company operates as a private sector, non-profit, social housing institution.
Having started from scratch, it has grown to become a leader in the social housing sector, recognised in South Africa and internationally for its innovative, practical and sustainable housing solutions.
We can do the same here.
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo