Release funds for housing programmes urgently

As for shelter it is described as something that provides cover or protection from all elements of weather.
At the moment millions of Zimbabweans are struggling to get access to dignified housing, something that is a cause for concern.
A number of people have in the past been cheated by smooth criminals while attempting to either buy stands to construct their houses or purchase the houses.
This is because the provision of houses in the country is now a difficult and expensive process that some of our people have given up hope that one day they would wake up owning a house. As a result of the economic challenges           that the country went through in the past 10 years or due to the economic sanctions imposed by the West, a number of economic programmes including that of housing failed to materialise.
However, a number of housing programmes have of late been touted, raising the hopes of millions of people that maybe they would at long last own a house.
The latest housing programme, the $40 million Insurance, Pensions and Housing Fund, was launched in October last year in Bulawayo by the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti. The programme was launched simultaneously with the topical $40 million Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund (Dimaf).
The launch of the housing fund was aimed at providing housing for first time applicants, especially those unemployed, just starting jobs and school leavers. It was said Old Mutual would oversee the disbursement of the fund.
However, on Friday we were taken aback when the Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities, Giles Mutsekwa said there were no funds as yet from Treasury.
“We have not received the money from Treasury. We are still                    waiting for the Minister of Finance,” Minister Mutsekwa was quoted as saying.
It is against this background that we call upon Minister Biti to release the funds for this housing project. Although the amount is not much we believe it would somehow have an impact in addressing the issue of housing in the country.
It would also somehow arrest the ever-increasing demand for housing as the national waiting list now stands at more than 1.2 million.
We believe that it is only under such programmes that our people can have access to shelter because the costs involved in either building or buying a house are well beyond the means of an average worker in the country.
Even the so-called professionals can no longer afford to buy houses, also because of the costs. A number of them are living as lodgers, an embarrassing scenario indeed.
So we call upon the powers that be to scale up such housing programmes because they would go a long way in improving the livelihoods of many.