admin
Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU City Council has approached the National Social Security Authority owned National Building Society (NBS) to service 2, 000 residential stands in the undeveloped new Mkoba 21 suburb.
The local authority availed 6,000 stands to potential buyers early last year, but has been failing to attract investors to service the area.
Chairperson of the commission running the affairs at council, Mr Tsunga Mhangami, said council has since approached NBS to help service the first batch of 2,000 stands.
“We have approached the National Building Society. They came here and we showed them the area.
“We held discussions with them and we wait to see how many stands they might want to take,” he said. Mr Mhangami said as council, they were also making individual efforts to have the area serviced so that people can start building.
According to an audit report done by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, council lost more than $300,000 to a company that carried out a survey of the 6,497 stands in the proposed Mkoba 21 suburb.
The money was lost through mismanagement by council officials who allegedly paid over $1, 15 million to Terra Surveys Land Surveyors, instead of $785,524,73, prejudicing the local authority of $365,028,98.
Meanwhile, the city has purchased 10 skip bins and a truck to replace the ageing fleet of refuse collection trucks, which were constantly breaking down thereby affecting service delivery.
The skip bins and their specially designed truck will be delivered next month, according Mr Mhangami. He said the four old refuse collection trucks were no longer able to efficiently remove refuse from the residential and industrial areas and therefore the need to invest in new equipment to keep the city clean.
“On refuse collection, we have secured funding to purchase 10 skip bins and their special truck.
The bins are being made by Deven Engineering and by end of August the city will have them. The skip bins will be placed at strategic places like Kudzanayi Bus Terminus, in Mtapa, Mkoba, Mambo and Ascot,” he said. Turning to the water issue, Mr Mhangami said a third water pump had been installed at Gwenhoro Dam and the water pumping capacity had increased to around 40 megalitres a day. In this light, Mr Mhangami said residents and the industry were assured of constant supply of water every day.
He said once the fourth water pump was back from Kwekwe where it is being repaired, they expected to pump 60 megalitres a day.
derick.khumalo