adminPardon Gotora Features
CorrespondentMy conviction is that the housing waiting list was tailored to avail indicative statistics with regards the housing demand of a given council in particular and the nation. In all local authorities in Zimbabwe, it is mandatory to be on the respective council’s waiting list for you to benefit from their housing projects. You are issued with a waiting list number inscribed on your receipt upon payment of a fee which varies amongst the local authorities and this has to be renewed annually. Renewing the waiting list number implies that one will be renewing his/her interest to be allocated a stand or house and the renewal is coupled with a payment again.
Mr Chamboko (not real name), a Government pensioner, visited my workplace to inquire on residential stands/houses that were on offer at the time. The old man was an outgoing person who could leave you in stitches in no time. I envy those he spends most of his time with.
We were four in the room, and as we discussed the possible avenues that could enable him to get a stand of his own, there was mention of being on the council’s housing waiting list.
The old man frowned and his tone suddenly transformed to a high pitch, much to the astonishment of all of us.
We saw two different personalities in one person in a split of a second.
His closing remarks were that, “I joined the housing waiting list KwaKatsekere (City of Harare) in the early 80s and up to now I have not benefited anything . . . I am now retired and do you foresee me getting anything now?”
Of course, I do not know the truth in that, but the chances were very high that he was saying the truth.
This situation is not peculiar to this old man. There are many homeseekers in Zimbabwe who have encountered similar situations. If we were to undertake a random sampling to ascertain the proportion of the persons who were on the councils’ housing waiting lists who profited from housing projects versus those who did not, chances are that there are more who did not benefit relative to those who did.
Likewise, if we were to make a comparison of those who joined the waiting lists in the 1980s against those who joined in the past 10 years, chances are that the latter have benefited more than the former.
The main reasons, I presume and stand guided, have to do with:
affordability — where the prices of the end product might be beyond the reach of some of those who joined in the 1980s;
failure to renew the waiting list number — the housing waiting list is renewable every year until one has benefited. Some people, due to ignorance, may assume that once they join, their names appear every time:
limited capacity on the part of local authorities to deliver stands/ houses commensurate with the demand;
corruption and nepotism — a lot of undeserving people jump the queue depending on how much they have and the people they know;
communication breakdown — where there might not be effective communication between the council and the beneficiary when the project is ripe.
I believe readers have more reasons from their personal experiences which I will be very keen to learn from.
My conviction is that the housing waiting list was tailored to avail indicative statistics with regards the housing demand of a given council in particular and the nation. Collectively, the figures might be used as a basis to determine demand and to plan forthcoming projects. This is ordinarily used when resources to undertake a comprehensive human settlement needs analysis or any other researches to ascertain demand are scarce. However, one of the many questions that arise from the use of housing waiting list as a yardstick to measure housing demand would be on the effectiveness of the model as a tool.
In as much as we subscribe to the notion that the statistics can be used as an index to depict demand, its credentials need to be put under the microscope. It is a policy, agreed, but how effective is it?
How does it capture the statistics of those who are not on the waiting list but require accommodation?
How does it account for such buildings that require replacements, that have gone past their life expectancy and are more expensive to maintain than to replace them? Others feel that it is merely a fundraising gimmick by local authorities yet it is not being followed when allocations are done.
Maybe the other questions that beg for answers would be:
Who supervises the lists?
At what stage do councils refer to the waiting list? Is it before or after allocation?
How effective is the Housing Information Management System (HIMS) used?
Can one check on-line whether his/her name is nearing allocation or the projects on offer at the time?
Is there a standardised format of waiting lists amongst the local authorities?
Are the local authorities educating the citizens, for instance, awareness campaigns on the significance of being on the waiting list or it is presumed they know? On many occasions I have met a vehicle marked Environmental Management Agency doing some educational campaigns against litter dumping.
How do councils communicate with the targeted beneficiaries now that there is new technology and people hop from one landlord to the other and perhaps the physical and postal addresses they used in 1980 have since been overtaken by events?
What is the figure now and at what stage is my name struck of the lists if a benefit today?
I am quite confident that we can have a two-page list of exclusive questions whose answers will remain elusive.
My suggestion will be to improve on our use of the information communication technology to improve on efficiency. As for the statistics on
housing demand, the country needs to carry out a comprehensive human needs assessment to determine near accurate information.
Government needs to leverage resources to carry out this study, otherwise we may be failing to reduce the backlog because we are planning on the wrong footing. Project managers have a saying which goes, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail”.
We might be planning to fail as a nation simply because there is no precise information to use when planning.
Thump sucking serves time and money in the short-term, but will be more expensive in the long-run and usually not effective and accurate.
If one is to visit a local authority today and ask for the backlog, you get figures from the waiting list. Is this a spot-on reflection of the situation on the ground?
- Pardon Gotora is a housing officer in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing. He writes in his personal capacity. His views and opinion must not be viewed as the views of the ministry. For feedback please feel free to email on [email protected]
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