KWEKWE City Council has distanced itself from a housing scheme being run by the local MP, Masango Matambanadzo, in which he has promised houses to the homeless in the city.
BLESSED MHLANGA
Matambanadzo, who is MP for Kwekwe Central, last year started an “empowerment scheme” where about 5 000 members pay $1 daily towards the scheme with aim of getting a house later.
The Zanu PF legislator claimed that he was working with the local authority which would allocate him stands and then use the subscriptions to build four-roomed houses for members.
“I will send you to China to buy stuff for resale and even talk to council so that we get stands to build houses for all the members in the association,” he told members of the scheme recently.
“We need at least 5 000 members who pay a dollar every day towards this fund.”
But Kwekwe mayor Matenda Madzoke has since distanced the council from the scheme.
He said the local authority had not made any commitment to providing stands to the MP.
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“We have not made any such deal with anyone,” he said. “As a local authority, when we parcel out stands we use the housing list and not MPs,” he said.
Madzoke said all available land had already been allocated to housing co-operatives, private developers and individuals, who purchased it directly from council.
“If we need more land we will have to apply to the Local Government ministry, but currently all land has been allocated,” he said.
Flea market operators and fruit vendors form the majority of members of the co-operative launched by Matambanadzo late last year. Each member has been paying $1 every day.
Matambanadzo said he would “not be deterred by people out to humiliate” him.
“I might be a Grade Two dropout, but my brains are big and I am going to change the lives of the people in Kwekwe,” he said.
