THE GWERU City Council has repossessed at least 26 Mkoba 21 residential stands from the government after its beneficiaries failed to pay for them, it has been established.
In a memo dated January 30 copied to the Housing and Social Amenities ministry written by the housing committee, the repossessed stands attract a penalty at current market rates.
”The following list of stands are now under repossession and attract penalty to meet the current market rates; stand numbers 18171, 18202, 18205, 18211, 18215, 18217, 18222, 18241, 18257, 18258, 18269, 18277, 18287, 18289, 18297, 18302, 18325, 18344, 18411, 18485, 18493, 18524, 18426, 18527, 18532 and 18533,” the memo addressed to the beneficiaries read.
Mayor Martin Chivhoko, however, denied claims that council had repossessed the stands given that they were given to government as commonage.
“At Mkoba 21 there are some stands which are under the ministry and not under council,” Chivhoko said.
“As a council we are not repossessing any stands as these (stands) were given as commonage and have nothing to do with the local authority.”
Council availed at least 6 000 stands to Mkoba 21 beneficiaries in 2014.
Most of the beneficiaries are council employees and they were given the stands to set off four months salary arrears and bonus owed to workers in 2015.
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People are, however, yet to start building houses as developers have not finished serving the land.
Last week, council warned that it would cancel contracts of land developers who failed to service stands.
