Sundaymail Editor
THE GOVERNMENT has revised its housing development target from 220 000 units to one million houses by 2025, as it believes it will surpass its initial target by year-end. Our News Editor LINCOLN TOWINDO (LT) spoke to National Housing and Social Amenities Minister DANIEL GARWE (DG) on developments in the housing sector.
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LT: Can you begin by outlining milestones in Government’s housing delivery programme?
DG: This ministry is five years old.
It was created at the birth of the New Dispensation with the responsibility of dealing with issues of human settlements, the housing delivery backlog in urban areas and transformation of rural communities as we move towards Vision 2030.
Our responsibilities are laid out under the housing thematic area in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which enjoins us to provide 220 000 housing units by 2025.
In defining housing units, we are talking about two things: the delivery of fully serviced residential stands and built-up housing units, that is, the superstructure constructed on a serviced stand, including blocks of flats.
In terms of fully serviced stands, the private sector and Government delivered about 136 000 fully serviced stands countrywide up to April 30.
We then delivered 50 000 superstructures, which are actual houses, within that period.
Currently, we have 43 000 residential stands that are being serviced that are now at 60 percent to 70 percent completion level.
Again, we have 42 000 houses that are under construction that are at 70 percent completion level.
We are expecting to finish these projects by December 31.
What that means is that we have delivered 186 000 residential stands and houses that people have occupied.
So, by year-end, we are looking at completing 220 000 units.
This means we will have surpassed our target for the year 2025 set out under NDS1.
Be that as it may, we said we cannot just sit and celebrate surpassing our target.
We remain aware of the housing waiting list, which we know is a moving target.
So, there will never be a time when the housing backlog goes down to zero.
As a result, we have revised our target from 220 000 units to a million units by 2025.
In addition, by the time we get to 2030, we will have digitised the housing delivery programme.
We are creating an online platform where those seeking housing can access information about availability of residential stands or houses through local authorities.
We are working closely with the Ministry of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Postal and Courier Services to create such a platform.
Because the digitisation programme falls under the Ministry of ICT, we are only providing complementary services such as feeding into the platform the number of available stands per location, the stage of individual project completion and those under development.
LT: How has the housing delivery programme impacted the broader Zimbabwean economy?
DG: The housing and all other associated sectors have contributed up to 5 percent of Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
We have created employment to the tune of four million jobs over the past five years, from the level of the skilled worker to the general hand.
If you were to say each of those people employed by the sector is earning an average salary of US$350, that means we have created billions of dollars in disposable incomes.
A rough estimate using those figures will show that we are generating incomes of up to US$16 billion.
And we are being conservative with the figures here because we have not factored in managerial staff and those above that level.
We have also created economic activity both upstream and downstream.
Downstream, we are looking at firms that are in the manufacturing sector, such as cement companies.
If you pick one of the biggest cement companies in the country — Khaya Cement — you will realise that it is producing one million tonnes per year.
Its figures are telling us that about 700 000 tonnes from its production are being channelled towards housing development.
If you look at the manufacturing of things like doors and window frames . . . when you look at construction of 50 000 houses, for each house, you will need an average of five doors.
If you multiply 50 000 houses by five doors, that will give you demand of about 250 000 doorframes and doors.
If you then add on the business being created for paint companies and others involved in manufacturing supplies for housing development, it shows you that we have generated a lot of business.
If you look at the actual construction, quite a lot of jobs have been created, both directly and indirectly.
And if you look at upstream industries, which is the retail sector, so many jobs have also been created and revenue has been generated.
Even at household level, the 50 000 houses that have been developed and occupied translate into an absolute minimum of 50 000 jobs for domestic workers.
That gives you an insight into the impact this sector has delivered, which has been underplayed by many.
For example, (in terms of) taxes, the Government has collected so much in terms of Pay As You Earn (PAYE).
Also, look at what the local authorities have collected in terms of what we call endowment fees; the building and inspection fees, which are generally about 10 percent of the revenue they generate — it’s a lot of wealth that has been created through the housing sector.
If you take what is happening in the housing sector and add that to what is happening in roads construction and all the related infrastructure development projects, the contribution of the construction industry cannot be overemphasised.
We are talking of about 25 percent of the GDP coming from the housing and infrastructure development sector.
LT: Urban local authorities have grappled with the problem of land barons for years. How is the Government addressing this issue?
DG: Land barons were born out of the desire to provide housing for all in 2005.
The old dispensation wanted to ensure that we clear the housing backlogs in all local authorities.
They then invited private sector players to come in because the Government did not have the technical and financial capacity to do all the work on its own.
The private sector had the skills and financial resources and the Government had the land. It was agreed that the Government would provide land at intrinsic value so that the final product becomes affordable for the ordinary citizen.
Private sector players would come in with their financial resources, build infrastructure, sell serviced stands to home seekers and pocket the money to recover their costs.
Contracts were then signed between these companies and Government.
Because the Government wanted to speed up the process, they wanted to do two things simultaneously — they wanted to provide services while, at the same time, allow homeowners to build the superstructure.
So, beneficiaries would pay for a residential stand and commence building a house while the developer would be providing services such as roads, water and sewer at the same time.
Unfortunately, that did not take place in all the settlements that were being developed.
The majority of the private players, who had access to the land, were dishonest people.
They started selling land to unsuspecting home seekers and pocketing the money.
Remember, this was State land and not theirs. They were only asked to develop it and recover the cost of developing and servicing the land. But these people turned rogue and started selling virgin land to unsuspecting beneficiaries.
In certain instances, there were double and multiple allocations.
This then created ugly scenes around urban areas, where we had informal settlements such as Caledonia, which is a case in point in Harare, and there is also Harare South.
But now we have said the Government cannot afford to stand idly by while these things happen.
Through the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities, and through the Human Settlements Policy, we are spearheading a settlements regularisation programme.
This is meant to ensure that people build houses in appropriate settlements.
We start with the Ministry of Local Government (and Public Works), where we ensure that the layout plans are produced.
Once the plans are produced, we then come and do the servicing.
These programmes are not being paid for by the Government; they are being paid for by the beneficiaries who have already built houses.
Crucially, the State now wants to transfer ownership of these houses to the beneficiaries, but through a regularised programme — where we will have proper roads, sewer, electricity and Wi-Fi.
The Government now also wants to join that programme with the issuance of title deeds.
Remember, we have an ugly animal in the house called a land baron. We want to deal with them and get them out of the way completely. One such way is to ensure that beneficiaries have title deeds to ensure they have security of tenure.
This programme was launched by the President in Epworth in April.
The President went further and said the programme should also be spread to pre-independence settlements such as Mbare, Glen Norah and Mufakose.
This is where the black community used to live before independence.
Those houses were being built as scheme houses and were being managed by local authorities. So, the people staying there were paying rent to the respective local authorities.
They were given either a lease agreement or an agreement of sale. But these two documents did not speak to ownership.
The ownership remained with the local authority. Unfortunately, because of the political developments that have taken place in the country, the majority of our local authorities are under the supervision of opposition parties, whose councillors have turned rogue.
Their councillors are chasing away people who have occupied council houses for between 40 and 50 years and then later buying those same houses for a song.
So, the President wants those residents protected. One way of protecting them is to ensure they are issued with title deeds.
They have already bought the houses through rentals.
If you have been renting a house for 50 years, it means, for all intents and purposes, you have already bought it.
So, that initiative is the first phase of the title deeds programme.
It entails giving title deeds to homeowners in suburbs that were well-planned but owners had no title.
The title deeds are being processed.
A consortium called Kwangu, comprising Government agencies and the private sector, has been created and is now running with the programme. Phase one is now looking at high-density areas like Mufakose, Highfield and Mbare. Those with lease agreements and/or agreements of sale will all be issued with title deeds.
The second phase refers directly to informal settlements that were created by rogue property developers, whom we are now referring to as land barons.
These are areas where people have built beautiful houses, but they have no services.
They need to be protected from the same land barons. So, the Government has come up with a regularisation programme, which will also include the issuance of title deeds to the beneficiaries.
Those people have built very beautiful houses, which can compete in terms of value with houses found in Borrowdale.
But, because they do not have services, they will not realise the actual value of their properties. So, that process is also running parallel to the phase one programme to ensure we provide title deeds.
Title deeds, by their definition, eliminate any forms of illegal land deals.
It’s a massive programme that is also big business.
It is something that is going to be run for a minimum of 10 years.
Within that period, we are looking at generating revenue in excess of US$10 billion, and there is a lot of employment that is going to be created, as title deeds are processed and as services are being provided to the settlements.
But the other way of dealing with the problem of land barons is to encourage those who would have been duped to report to the police and the law will take its course. Phase one is already work in progress, as we speak.
There are so many meetings that are taking place being spearheaded by this Ministry (of National Housing) . . .
So, these are massive programmes that are going to span for a minimum of 10 years; it can’t be done over a year like people are expecting.
LT: Obviously, this expansive programme also speaks to the provision of onsite and offsite infrastructure for irregular settlements such as those in Harare South.
DG: Regularisation under the Human Settlements Policy entails provision of onsite and offsite infrastructure.
Regularisation, in the simplest of terms, is to ensure that roads are constructed, water services are provided, sewer services are provided, as well as ensure that electricity is provided and now ensure that Wi-Fi is provided.
Generally, offsite infrastructure is provided by the Government.
But, as you are aware, Government does not have the resources to meet all the competing needs. That is why we had invited the private sector to join hands with Government to provide both onsite and offsite infrastructure and then sell fully serviced stand to home seekers.
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