Home ownership hopes fade in Iminyela

Flora Fadzai Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
MRS Senzeni Sibanda (70) is one of the 400 residents of Iminyela suburb who have been waiting for the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to give them full ownership of the homes, which they have been renting for over five decades.

While home ownership offers another path to wealth, even if a home’s value remains flat, for these residents of one of Bulawayo’s oldest suburbs commonly known as Number One, the hope of being home owners is slowly fading away.

The overcrowded houses were built before independence, when blacks were largely confined to the “western areas” or townships.

Most of the dwellers are not the original occupants of the houses as they inherited the houses from their parents and grandparents.

Mrs Sibanda said they have been renting the houses from BCC for more than fifty years now, yet there is still no hope they will get their title deeds.

“I have lived here in Iminyela for all my 70 years and l foresee myself dying before l get title deeds of the house. We are living in squalid conditions and sharing ablution facilities and sadly we cannot develop our homes because they are not ours since we are renting from council,” she said.

“We have been waiting for years with the hope of getting title deeds, but there is no hope in sight. We hear stories that council have converted the houses to full ownership, but there is no official paperwork to confirm that.”

Mrs Sibanda said they were told in order to gain full ownership of the houses, they are required to build their own toilets.

“However, most of the residents have lost hope of ever owning these houses.”
Another resident, Mrs Sithabiso Ndiweni (53) said living conditions such as overcrowding are health ticking time bomb.

She expressed displeasure over the dilapidated state of their communal toilets and bathrooms amid fears that an outbreak of diseases such as cholera was looming.

“One communal toilet is used by 12 households instead of four and as residents we have called on the Bulawayo City Council to step in and rescue the situation,” said Mrs Ndiweni.

She said residents have resorted to locking the toilets so that outsiders do not gain access.

“Right now as it stands, the toilet that we are using is used by more than 10 people from four houses. We cannot spend the whole day monitoring everyone who enters the toilet,” said Ms Ndiweni.

“We are appealing to council to build more toilets since they are refusing to give us full ownership of the homes. After all, that is our right as tenants since we pay rent.”

Iminyela Residents Association chairperson, Mr Cloud Sibanda said the situation in the suburb was a ticking heath time bomb.

“I cannot go to the toilet at night for fear of being mugged and women are also likely to be raped while inside the toilet.

The toilets are dirty because they are used by several people and you cannot blame anyone because we don’t own these properties,” he said.

Mrs Noma Ncube said the solution to their predicament lies in council handing over the houses to the tenants who have been occupying them for years.

The local councillor Frank Javangwe said some people have since been given full ownership of the homes after they built their toilets.

“We have people who have been given full ownership of their homes after they had built their toilets because the policy says a person cannot become a homeowner without having a personal toilet,” he said.

According to the latest full council meeting minutes, more than 100 homes at Iminyela have been converted into full ownership and now belong to individuals.

The council minutes also stated that 10 individual toilets have been completed at the suburb with 217 partially completed.
The city’s housing waiting list has ballooned to more than 130 000.

In November 2020, Cabinet adopted the Zimbabwe National Human Settlements Policy (ZNHSP) which is meant to address the housing and social amenities backlog while reducing the rural and urban divide.

Government intends to build 225 000 housing units by 2025 as it works to reduce the country’s housing backlog which stands at about 1,2 million.–@flora_sibanda