Thousands of Bulawayo families living in council-owned houses are still waiting to secure ownership of their homes, with more than 3 400 properties yet to be converted from rentals to home ownership across some of the city’s oldest high-density suburbs.
The latest figures contained in a Bulawayo City Council housing report show that 2 780 houses in Iminyela, Mabuthweni and Emganwini were still awaiting conversion as at June, while another 716 houses in Makokoba and Mzilikazi had not been converted.
Pumula had one outstanding case.
The figures expose the slow pace of a programme intended to give long-term council tenants security of tenure by allowing them to convert rented municipal properties into homes they can own.
According to the director of housing and community services Dictor Khumalo’s July report houses in Iminyela, Mabuthweni and Emganwini are targeted for conversion.
Of these, the council’s table records 447 as having been converted, leaving 2 780 still outstanding.
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Mabuthweni has the largest number of houses in the programme, with 1 815 units, but only 211 had been converted, leaving 1 604 still to be dealt with.
At Iminyela, 187 of 1 232 houses had been converted, leaving 1 045.
Emganwini’s Millennium housing project has 167 units, of which 49 had been converted, leaving 118.
The figures mean that only about 14% of the 3 214 houses in the three suburbs had been converted according to the table, leaving more than 86% still outside the home ownership scheme.
The situation is also largely unchanged in Makokoba and Mzilikazi.
The council report says 1 567 of 2 283 houses in the two suburbs had been converted, leaving 716 outstanding.
“There were no houses that were converted to homeownership during the period under review,” the report reads.
It added that there were no changes in June 2026 in the Makokoba/Mzilikazi conversion programme.
Pumula has also made little movement, with four of its five houses converted and one still outstanding.
The latest figures come against a background of years of pressure from residents for council to transfer ownership of houses they have occupied for long periods.
Council has previously described the conversion programme as a way of providing property security to residents who have occupied municipal houses for lengthy periods.
The conversion programme has been running for years.
Council records show that in 2023, for example, 420 houses in Iminyela, Mabuthweni and Emganwini had been converted, while 1 567 houses in Makokoba and Mzilikazi had already been converted.
By November 2025, council reported that the number converted in the three suburbs had risen to 431, while the Makokoba/Mzilikazi figure remained at 1 567.
The latest report says an administration, management and regularisation exercise is currently being undertaken in Iminyela, Mabuthweni and Emganwini.
Council says the exercise is also encouraging residents to finalise their conversions and settle outstanding amounts owed to the local authority, resulting in what it describes as a “marked improvement in revenue to council.”
However, the June figures show that the bulk of the targeted houses were still to be converted.
Meanwhile, the report also highlights a separate unresolved housing problem involving the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai programme.
At the beginning of the period under review, the council had 24 unresolved double-allocation cases, and no cases were resolved during the period.
The report’s table shows the number of outstanding cases remaining at 24.
Double allocations have been a longstanding problem associated with the city’s housing programmes, with previous council reports also recording unresolved cases under the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai scheme.
The city has previously said it would address such cases as suitable stands became available.