Harare allocates paltry 56 stands in 5 months

Harare mayor Jacob Mafume

HARARE City Council (HCC) has only managed to allocate 56 housing stands in five months while its housing waiting list is ballooning, resulting in land barons taking advantage of desperate home-seekers.

“We managed to allocate only 56 stands since January and this is sad as the housing waiting list is standing at 11 282 active members as at December 31, 2022,” mayor Jacob Mafume said in his first quarter report on Wednesday.

 “The city is finalising the human settlement policy which is coming as a review to the current housing policy.

“We will then unveil the new housing models that the city will implement going forward particularly as we seek to address the outstanding issues in the pay schemes that are operational in Harare.”

He added: “Going forward the city will not allocate unserviced land because this has created a lot of problems and has promoted the mushrooming of illegal settlements.”

The report also covered issues to do with waste management which Mafume said remained a major challenge.

“This is largely due to low fleet availability and the inherent littering that is the culture of some residents of Harare,” he said

Mafume said the health sector in the capital was under the spotlight, adding that the council had been recording an average of 1 500 deliveries per month at polyclinics despite a shortage of facilities.

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