By Conrad Mwanawashe
Zimbabwe’s rural communities are set for transformation and mordenisation which will include construction of rental model affordable houses, abolition of blair toilets in favour of flushing systems, and title deeds to land holders.
This is part of government’s Rural Transformation Strategy which President ED Mnangagwa is pursuing with his new dispensation under the mantra “Leaving no one and no place behind”.
“In terms of the President Mnangagwa’s mantra of Leaving no one and no place behind, we have taken the rural landscape of Zimbabwe on a higher trajectory in terms of ensuring that we provide affordable housing in the rural communities.
“Affordable houses in terms of the flats that we are going to be building. A pilot project is underway in Mutawatawa, Mashonaland East province, and we are going to be building in all the ten province, blocks of flats to ensure that people in the rural areas have access to affordable housing,” Minister Garwe said while addressing a Joint Press Conference on the Urban Development Corporation (UDCORP) Projects and UDCORP Transformation Strategy.
“Under the Rural Transformation Strategy and working with the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, we have come up with a Rural Waste Management Programme which we are going to be launching soon in the ten provinces. The Rural Waste Management Programme transforms the rural communities from using blair toilets to flushing systems.
“As government, we are moving away from the single story construction to vertical trajectory and we are promoting the Build Better Vertically concept to preserve land for agriculture. This requires us to have optimum land use,” Minister Garwe said.
He said government is building five blocks of flats per admin district, and has started with ten admin districts, that is, one admin district per province.
Under the First Phase 480 units will be constructed and funded by government.
“However, we have invited the private sector to partner government because we want to resuscitate the rental model which was common in the early 1990s. The land in the rural areas has value but value is created by the issuance of title deeds. Government has already directed the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works to ensure that all land particularly in the Rural District Council centres, is surveyed and titled. So we are now inviting the private sector to join hands with government on this massive housing development project targeted for citizens who are willing and are domiciled in the rural areas. It’s a massive project funded by government and the private sector,” Minister Garwe said.
UDCORP is mandated to:
Encourage and assist Local Authorities to plan and coordinate urban growth and development, as well as to improve the standards of living of the general populace of Zimbabwe through the development of housing and related infrastructure.
Offer Audit and capacity building services to Local Authorities in Zimbabwe.
UDCORP CEO Joey Shumbamhini said through the Transformation Programme code named ‘Transformation Restore UDCORP’s Prosperity’, the corporation is set to unlock its “Land Bank (Resuscitate Project Works) and increase Land Bank for more projects”.
UDCORP is working with rural district councils to deliver housing countrywide.
“It’s a testimony that rural district counciles can have that aggressive development,” said Shumbamhini.
