Two-year land freeze hits Bulawayo housing delivery

Vusumuzi Dube, Deputy Radar Editor

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has, over the past two years, failed to parcel out land to private developers with attempts to conclude the tendering process collapsing on three separate occasions, the local authority has confirmed.

Council officials said the stalled process has largely been due to non-compliance by bidders, inadequate technical and financial capacity among some applicants and repeated failures within the procurement process that forced re-tendering.

According to BCC, several developers who responded to previous Expressions of Interest (EOIs) were disqualified at various stages for failing to meet stipulated requirements and conditions set out in the bidding documents.

However, the prolonged failure to allocate land has raised questions, particularly after it emerged that a significant number of developers who were repeatedly disqualified are already implementing large housing development projects in partnership with the city council.

Some of the developers are reportedly involved in projects that BCC itself has previously cited as success stories in addressing Bulawayo’s housing backlog, a development that has left observers questioning the consistency of the evaluation criteria used in the land allocation process.

Responding to questions from Sunday News, the local authority’s corporate communications officer, Miss Bongiwe Ngwenya confirmed that for the past two years they had failed to award any developer parcels of land despite repeatedly identifying possible land for development.

She revealed that some bidders who initially appeared compliant were later found to lack the necessary financial strength, technical expertise or implementation capacity required to undertake large-scale housing developments.

“The City of Bulawayo has faced delays in contracting service providers for housing projects development over the past two years due to non-compliance by participants, several bidders who responded to previous Expressions of Interest (EOIs) failed to meet the stipulated requirements and conditions, some participants, although compliant on paper, were subsequently assessed to lack the requisite financial strength, technical expertise, or implementation capacity to undertake large-scale housing developments.

“In a number of instances, the procurement process did not successfully reach conclusion, having failed on more than two occasions. In line with procurement regulations, the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) recommended re-tendering in those cases,” said Miss Ngwenya.

“As a result, the allocation and servicing of land for housing development has been delayed despite the city having identified and made several land parcels available through EOIs.”

The council spokesperson revealed that the City’s internal processes are largely governed by statutory procurement and investment frameworks, noting that where delays have occurred, these have mainly been associated with procurement-related procedures, including compliance with the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) requirements and, where applicable, engagements with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (Zida).

“However, as indicated, the delays have been due to bidders failing to meet the stipulated requirements and conditions, resulting in disqualification at various stages of the process. Accordingly, delays in land allocation and development have not been primarily due to internal bureaucratic inefficiencies, but rather the need to adhere to compliance and regulatory processes and the subsequent capacity and performance of appointed developers.

“It should be noted that once the procurement process is successfully concluded and a developer is appointed, the pace of land servicing and project implementation is largely under the control of the developer, rather than the City,” said the council spokesperson.

Miss Ngwenya went on to note that developers also had the option of engaging private sources of land and not solely relying on the local authority to provide them with parcels of land for development.

“It should be noted that the provision of land is not solely the prerogative of Council. Private developers are encouraged to also consider private sources of land for residential development. In this regard, Council itself supplements its land bank by purchasing land from private sources for development, thereby expanding opportunities for housing delivery beyond municipally owned land.

“In addition, the City continues to streamline procurement processes within statutory requirements, clearly defining project scopes, and enforcing the policy requiring developers to fully service land before sale. These measures are intended to improve project turnaround times, ensure orderly development, and accelerate the availability of serviced residential land for housing,” she said.

Questioned on possible timelines that will see land being finally awarded to developers, Miss Ngwenya said availability of land to private developers is guided by a structured planning and approval process rather than a fixed timeline.

“In addition, the City only releases land that is in proximity to existing essential services, including water supply and sewer infrastructure, to ensure that developments are viable, sustainable, and capable of being fully serviced.

“Accordingly, the near-term release of land depends on the completion of layout preparations, statutory approvals, and confirmation of service availability. As these prerequisites are met, Council will progressively make land available to private developers in line with its planning programmes and infrastructure capacity,” she said.

BCC maintains that the tendering process has been guided strictly by procurement regulations and due diligence requirements, insisting that compliance, capacity and value for money remain central to its land disposal policy.

Meanwhile, no timeline has been provided on when the next tender process will be concluded, leaving prospective developers and prospective home seekers waiting as the city’s housing deficit continues to grow.

The City currently utilises the Expressions of Interest (EOI) framework as the primary mechanism for engaging private sector land developers.

Through this process, developers are duly selected and awarded development tenders, and are subsequently engaged under formal contracts with the City of Bulawayo for the servicing and delivery of residential stands using their own resources.

This policy protects beneficiaries from financial loss, improves project delivery certainty, and ensures that only fully serviced stands are released to the market.

This approach contrasts with the previous prepaid scheme, under which prospective beneficiaries made payments in advance before a contractor had been appointed to service the land. That arrangement proved detrimental to residents, particularly during the transition of the national currency from the United States Dollar (US$) to the RTGS Dollar, which resulted in significant erosion of the value of funds already paid. Consequently, beneficiaries were later required to make additional top-up payments to cover funding shortfalls.