The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) and some home seekers at Emhlangeni Phase 2 and Magwegwe Extension surburbs have reached an agreement on the servicing of their housing stands.
They agreed that each home seeker will pay US$4000, excluding value added tax, towards the completion of water and sewer servicing of their stands and construction of roads in the area.
The revelation was made in the latest minutes of a council meeting on the pre-sale of stands, servicing of medium and high density residential stands, city wide roads, water and sewer reticulation systems.
According to the minutes, acting director of engineering services Sikhumbuzo Ncube gave an update on incomplete projects in the city.
"Inter-departmental engagement with beneficiaries meetings with various beneficiary groups continued,” the minutes read.
“The BCC met beneficiaries from Emhlangeni phase 2 and Magwegwe Extension at City Hall and Magwegwe Hall respectively.
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"Agreements as to payment for outstanding works were made, with residents from Emhlangeni agreeing to fork out US$4000 excluding VAT per beneficiary.”
In Magwegwe Extension, home seekers agreed to pay US$3700.
"This was meant to cover servicing for water and sewer,” the minutes read.
“The construction of roads was to be attended to and considered once these other services had been completed.
“The beneficiaries had continued requesting for the issuance of their agreement of sale documents after the payment of these top ups.
"The housing department is currently considering this request."
According to city fathers, some land developers were withdrawing from various sites due to delays in payment for their work.
Bulawayo deputy mayor Mlandu Ncube admitted that some projects had stalled due to various challenges such as the poor performance of the economy.
“Pumula South stands servicing was affected by the failing economy and the loss of value of the currency, but the beneficiaries and council have agreed on a solution to that problem,” Ncube said.
Ncube, however, said it was not easy to cancel tenders awarded to land developers.
“Actually council has a project management committee that reports to council now and then and reports to council,” he said.
“People must appreciate that it's not easy to just cancel the contracts.
“There are a lot of legal routes that need to be taken in order to be disqualified.”
Bulawayo has a housing waiting list of over 100 000 people.
Council once sought a partnership deal with the Local Government ministry for the construction of residential flats in the sprawling Cowdray Park and Emganwini high density suburbs to ease the city’s housing backlog.
The proposed project suffered a stillbirth.