Residents want Chombo to intervene in housing scam

administering the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai Government Housing Project in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb.
Chronicle reported that more than 2 000 beneficiaries of the Government self-help project have reportedly lost housing stands in the suburb.
Investigations by Chronicle and reports from the original beneficiaries showed that several stands now have multiple owners.
Those who either phoned or visited Chronicle expressed interest in the issue saying, “at last the rot surrounding the housing project would be exposed”.
They said they now wanted the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo, to intervene.
Officials from different Government offices also phoned inquiring about the goings on and expressed concern over the plight of beneficiaries.
They wanted to know some of the people implicated in the alleged scandal.
Those who lost the housing stands expressed concern over the conduct of the officials at the Bulawayo Home Seekers’ Consortium Trust (BHSCT).
“We are happy that at last you have published this. We did not know where to go and what to do because we visit their offices everyday and they always tell us to come back but without any help. The Government should know that this is how we are being treated,” said a caller, who asked not to be named.
In the past few weeks, scores of people have been visiting Chronicle offices complaining about the way the project is being administered.
Even Mr Taurai Matavire, who had not been reachable for almost two months after this reporter phoned him in December last year when he was implicated by an injiva who lost his stand, yesterday phoned saying he was admitted to a hospital in Harare.
He dismissed as untrue allegations by some beneficiaries that they gave him money.
“I was a member of a cooperative in Cowdray Park and I was only trying to assist them as a leader. It is not true that I took people’s money. They should talk to those people who repossessed their stands, not me,” said Mr Matavire, who said he ran a housing consultancy.
He is alleged to have been demanding payment from beneficiaries on the pretext that he was representing both the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement and the Bulawayo City Council.
In 2005, the Government allocated more than 7 000 housing stands to home seekers in Cowdray Park under the self-help scheme dubbed Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai meant to benefit the poor.
There are 12 segments in the Cowdray Park project meant to benefit 7 860 home seekers.
Each beneficiary is supposed to make a once off payment of $150 for buying material and monthly subscription fees are pegged at five dollars per stand.
Some of those who have lost their housing stands are Zimbabweans based in South Africa who found their stands allocated to new beneficiaries.
There is growing tension in the suburb as the original beneficiaries and those who have been allocated the stands are threatening to fight over the issue.
Officials from BHSCT said the stands were repossessed because the owners were not paying monthly subscriptions but this was refuted by the beneficiaries who are accusing the trust of profiteering by selling the stands to new beneficiaries.
Retired Colonel Thabani Khumalo, the chairman of the project, recently said they were repossessing undeveloped stands and those whose owners have not been paying development and administration fees.
He said a slab, box and foundation were not recognised as development.
BCC Public Relations Officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu referred questions about the issue to officials at the project, saying as council they had no mandate to comment on it.
Officials from the project recently urged those who lost the stands to approach their offices so that they could be considered for other housing stands if the council availed more land.