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Midlands Bureau
Residents of Woodlands suburb in Gweru have hailed a local private land developer, River Valley Properties for repairing roads despite it having handed over the suburb to Gweru City Council over 10 years ago.
The real estate company recently moved in with its earthmoving equipment and started repairing roads.
Woodlands, which is Gweru’s latest suburb and has 8 000 houses, was developed by River Valley Properties in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
Residents who spoke to The Herald said the gesture by River Valley Properties was its Christmas present to them.
“It was a Christmas present from the private land developer, we have been to the Gweru City Council on numerous occasions to complain about lack of service delivery in our suburb despite the fact that the suburb was handed over to them by the developer some years ago and we have been paying rates since then.
“Since the private developer left, our roads have deteriorated and Gweru city council never came to repair them,” said Mrs Loice Gundu who owns a house in the suburb.
Another resident, Mr Phineas Mukaro said Gweru City council should work on relocating the dumpsite in the area to improve hygiene.
“What is surprising is that Gweru City Council wants our money but it is doing nothing for us,” he said.
The local Member of Parliament, Mr Livingston Chiminya also commended River Valley Properties for the good job.
He said he was liaising with Gweru City Council authorities to do their part in repairing the roads.
“We are talking to the local authority to fulfil its service delivery mandate to all the suburbs in Gweru,” he said.
Meanwhile, River Valley Properties chief executive Dr Smelly Dube said they were repairing roads in Woodlands as part of their social responsibility programme.
“We handed over the project long back to the city council but we just decided to go back to the suburb to do the roads as part of our social responsibility programme.
“Beginning next month (January), we will be doing clean-up campaigns in Woodlands after we noted with concern lack of refuse collection in the area,” she said.
She added “We will always keep a close eye and interest in all areas that we do property development.’’
Online Reporter