adminFreedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Redcliff Town Council has embarked on a massive housing programme to increase the town’s housing units and improve revenue collection, Mayor Councillor Fred Kapuya has said. Redcliff town is struggling to operate after its biggest client Zisco, which used to be the backbone of the satellite town, closed shop in 2008 due to a viability crunch.
Since then, the town has been operating on a shoe-string budget with the town’s only source of revenue — the residents — defaulting ever since the steel giant closed.
In an interview, Clr kapuya said the town, which has large tracts of land lying idle, has embarked on a housing programme with the aim of increasing its housing units to about 30 000.
He said the move will help the council survive through revenue collection.
“Our coffers are in the red at the moment and as the local authority, we had to come up with a survival plan. We have discovered that if we increase our housing units, we will be in a position to collect revenue from as many residents as we can.
“We have the capacity to have more housing units than of parent city, Kwekwe so we have embarked on a massive housing programme,” he said
Clr Kapuya said under the programme, the council has engaged private property developers to service the land with town getting some percentage out of it.
“We have said as Redcliff, we don’t have money, we don’t have the resources. We are struggling but private developers with the machinery and capacity to develop and service the land can come and do that.
“We are getting a certain percentage out of that and in the long run, we will be collecting revenue from households,” he said.
Clr Kapuya said many people in the Midlands Province were taking advantage of the programme, coming in to invest property in Redcliff.
“What we have realised is that many people from Kwekwe, Gweru Kadoma even Zvishavani are coming to invest in Redcliff.
“Some are already staying in Redcliff while they drive every morning to work either in Gweru of Kwekwe. We hope the programme will help us improve in revenue collection,” he said.
Online Reporter