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Harare city set to begin provision of services to Caledonia settlement

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HARARE City Council will now begin providing services like water to Caledonia settlement in line with a Presidential proclamation which placed the area under the jurisdiction of the capital, mayor Bernard Manyenyeni has said.

HARARE City Council will now begin providing services like water to Caledonia settlement in line with a Presidential proclamation which placed the area under the jurisdiction of the capital, mayor Bernard Manyenyeni has said.

by VENERANDA LANGA

Small and Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni
Small and Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni

Manyenyeni yesterday appeared before the Irene Zindi-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, where she told MPs that council had no choice but to legalise the settlement now housing more than 30 000 households.

He said demolitions will not be done except for areas, which were inhabitable and posing danger to humans.

Under the new arrangement, Harare will take over administration of Caledonia from Goromonzi Rural District Council.

The settlement will now draw its water from Mabvuku Tafara reservoir, which itself receives erratic supplies.

“The infrastructure deficit of City of Harare is outstripped as it was designed to cater for 200 000 people, but is now catering for 2 million people, which is 10 times its capacity. The status of our preparedness to service Caledonia is not going to be pleasant because we are currently failing to supply Harare main,” Manyenyeni said.

“Caledonia is an illegal settlement that is already there and the question is what the way forward is, notwithstanding that we are battling to provide services for our Harare residents. I would say Caledonia must be declared a disaster, so that appropriate resources are applied to bring speedy solutions.”

He said there was no need to demolish existing structures.

“ I would say these are desperate people who need roofs and resorted to the illegal settlement, and our technical team will state which of the housing units are unfit for human habitation, and which can survive,” he said.

“We had to demolish houses in Hopley Farm because houses collapsed on top of families, and so we have to make our options out of the choices of whether they are habitable or pose danger.”

Acting town clerk, Josephine Ncube said while the Ministry of Local Government owned the land in Caledonia, Harare City Council will take over administrative duties of approving plans, providing services like sewer and water, schools, parks, clinics and other public infrastructure.

Manyenyeni told the committee that banning of co-operatives is the way to go to flush out land barons, who politicised settlements and fleeced people of their money.

However, Small and Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni, who appeared before the same committee said housing co-operatives were still necessary as they have provided 100 000 houses since 2009, which local authorities failed to provide. She said it was the corrupt land barons and land developers who needed to be dealt with.

The committee asked Nyoni to explain how $300 000 reportedly went missing from co-operatives at Caledonia as alleged by the Urban Development Corporation, which was given the mandate to normalise the chaotic settlement.

Nyoni said co-operatives were on the other hand accusing Udcorp of withdrawing money from their bank accounts.

“Udcorp is going into co-operatives’ accounts and taking money from them, and that is not allowed in the Co-operatives Act. Some leaders of co-operatives are also corrupt, and they must be brought to book. We need a neutral board of enquiry to bring out the truth of what is happening in Caledonia,” she said.

Nyoni said there was no bad blood between her ministry and the Local Government ministry as both were working together to solve the chaos in Caledonia.