National housing projects take shape
Zimbabwe is on course to providing decent housing in line with attaining Vision 2030 of an upper middle income economy, Vice President Kembo Mohadi said yesterday while touring the Kasese Housing Development Project in Kariba.
Government has taken over the financing of the project to expedite the relocation of 390 families living in squalid conditions under a 330KVA power line in Mahombekombe Township.
With provision of decent housing and improvement of people’s lives prioritised, financing and building models for housing across the country are being explored through a public-private sector initiative.
Already, 10 banks and companies are on-board.
In Kariba, about 90 families, mostly the elderly and vulnerable, will have three-roomed core houses as part of the urban renewal project.
The project had stalled owing to contractual disagreements between Kariba Municipality, the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe and contractors.
Said VP Mohadi: “We would want to realise a situation that come 2030, everyone here in Zimbabwe has decent accommodation and that we are going to achieve it.
“What we want to assure the people in the country, Mashonaland West and here in Kariba is that we walk the talk. What we say we going to do we do. It may take us time, but we do it.
“I am saying so with this in the back of my mind that in 1957 we told you that we are going to liberate this country and we never looked back. We liberated this country in 1979 and got our Independence in 1980.”
VP Mohadi said the land issue, which was the basis of the liberation struggle, will help Zimbabwe achieve Vision 2030.
“From the land comes everything, your minerals, food, water and houses. It is the land that we have got and it’s ours, therefore land barons have got not room.
“They must be fought and they must be uprooted whenever we come across them because the land does not belong to them, but to Zimbabwe through the President,” he said.
VP Mohadi toured the Mahombekombe Blocks, which were constructed as single quarters housing for people who participated in the construction of Kariba Dam in the 1950s.
VP Mohadi vowed that the relocation would be done quickly.
Turning to democracy, VP Mohadi said Zimbabwe has multiple political parties while freedom of speech was respected. But the freedoms associated with democracy should not be abused to destabilise the country.
“As Zanu PF, ruling party we know where we are coming from and we know where we are going. There are certain other parties as well, that have mushroomed in the process.
“Well, that’s democracy. We brought democracy, freedom of speech, association, religion, but please don’t abuse it. Use it properly. Don’t use it to destabilise Zimbabwe because the enemy that we fought and defeated was far much stronger than you.
“So be responsible in whatever you do. If you are in opposition, or in the ruling party, be responsible in whatever you do because you are doing it for Zimbabweans,” said VP Mohadi.
National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said land barons would be dealt with decisively adding that Government would pursue balanced development of urban and rural areas.
Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs Minister, Mary Mliswa-Chikoka, said Mahombekombe and Kasese will never be the same again after VP Mohadi’s tour.–herald
