THE Zanu PF provincial chairperson for Bulawayo Jabulani Sibanda last week disparaged police details for failing to respect the country’s national anthem at the groundbreaking ceremony for civil servants’ housing scheme at Lower Rangemore in Bulawayo.
The event saw the unveiling of 236 out of 400 four-roomed houses by the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister July Moyo for the Accelerated Presidential Housing Scheme for Public Servants themed Delivering affordable housing for all!
Sibanda reminded the crowd that the national anthem should be respected.
“A national anthem is very important and should be respected everyone, be it that you are a doctor or any position you hold, actually, even if you are lying in bed ill, try all means to be at attention, even if you are in a coffin as a corpse, if you can hear it, be at attention,” Sibanda said.
“It’s so touching to see a policeman I would not want to name, shame on you, but had we been at another function, I would have done that and asked you to sing it on your own.”
The outspoken Sibanda also scoffed at people who were chatting during the singing of the national anthem.
“How is it that during the singing of a national anthem, you will be standing holding on to your waist? You even converse with your colleague on top of that, that is an insult, not only to our country, nor to our nation, but to the people that fought to have you become a ZRP today,” he said.
Meanwhile, Moyo urged people to build houses, saying the National Building Society (NBS) pension schemes were affordable to everyone.
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“The work that has been done between these developers and NBS assures us that they are aiming to make sure that civil servants, even at the lowest level, will get these houses, that’s why the ranges of what can be paid is US$140 equivalent up to US$198 equivalent,” Moyo said.
“I am saying this is the range, and that range, I am sure that most of these public servants are already paying rent which is higher than what they will pay when they own houses.”
He said the schemes were made inexpensive depending on an individuals’ affordability.
“Sometimes I fight with NBS because in the end, a person must not pay more than 22,8% of their gross salary for housing, we have developed this since we took over; you must not pay more than that, if you cannot pay it in 15 years, you can pay in 10 years, or in 25 years, to make sure affordability is reduced to those who are in the lower end of their pay, if we continue to do this, we can build housing even for the private sector as well,” he said.
The scheme has 4 000 housing units, with an accelerated pace of delivering 118 units within 60 days, aiming at delivering 1.5 million housing units by 2025.
The housing scheme is being implemented by the Maharba (PVT) Limited, in partnership with Hawkflight Construction and NBS, with the seed money from the National Social Security Authority.
