happiness Chikwanha
Nyore Madzianike, Manicaland Bureau
MUTARE City Council has given Holiday Inn Mutare the green light to expand its premises after it approved the sale of a piece of land which the hotel was using as a car park.
Holiday Inn Mutare, through its parent company African Sun Limited, had applied to purchase the 1 480 square-metre piece of land.
Council’s public works and town lands committee held a meeting on December 19 last year and approved that the piece of land be changed from a road reservation to commercial use.
Holiday Inn Mutare seeks to expand its hotel to create more rooms from 96 to 150 and additional conference rooms.
“In his report, the director of engineering and technical services had advised that Africa Sun Limited applied for the acquisition of portion of Second Avenue (currently used by Holiday Inn Mutare as car park) for purposes of expanding Holiday Inn Mutare from 96 rooms to 150 rooms,” read minutes from the December meeting.
During the meeting, the committee recommended that African Sun Limited be requested to submit the architectural brief showing the facilities to be provided including parking provision.
The committee also recommended that the preliminary drawing should also set aside pedestrians’ access to the ground floor along the existing pavements and that expansion should be completed within 15 months upon signing of the agreement of sale.
The committee’s recommendations for the expansion, however, ignited mixed feelings among councillors during a full council meeting held on Thursday at the Civic Centre in Mutare.
Some councillors were opposed to the sale of the car park arguing that it was not feasible to sell a road.
Ward 12 councillor Simon Chabuka enquired on which currency the car park would be sold to African Sun Limited and moved a motion that the piece of land in question remain council property.
Town Clerk Mr Joshua Maligwa said the issue of currency rests with the finance committee, arguing that there was no reason to continue debating on the matter as the responsible committee had “rightfully debated on the issue”.
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