Chiredzi runs out of housing land

CHIREDZI Town Council has run out of land to develop new residential areas, a situation that has forced the council to apply for at least 6 000 hectares from Government. Conservative estimates put Chiredzi’s population at 32 000, but council officials believe the actual figure is over 50 000. The housing backlog stands at 15 000. Council secretary Mr Charles Muchatukwa said they were waiting for Government to allocate them more land for expansion.

CHIREDZI Town Council has run out of land to develop new residential areas, a situation that has forced the council to apply for at least 6 000 hectares from Government.

Conservative estimates put Chiredzi’s population at 32 000, but council officials believe the actual figure is over 50 000. The housing backlog stands at 15 000. Council secretary Mr Charles Muchatukwa said they were waiting for Government to allocate them more land for expansion. Mr Muchatukwa said they were targeting Buffalo Range Farm along the Ngundu-Tanganda Highway.

‘’We hope that if we can get the 6 000 hectares of land that we applied for to Government, we will be able to completely get rid of the housing backlog which is so serious in this town,’’ said Mr Muchatukwa.

‘’There is no more land for us to expand because we are almost surrounded by sugarcane estates and we are now pinning our hopes on Government giving us a portion of Buffalo Range Farm to develop more residential areas.’’

Mr Muchatukwa said his council had received applications for residential stands from housing cooperatives and private land developers eager to exploit the high demand for housing, but the situation was compounded by shortage of land.

‘’We are not sure when we are going to get the land we applied for because we applied many years ago and even resubmitted it in 2012, but nothing has happened up to now,’’ he said.

Mr Muchatukwa said his council had received applications for land from various companies and financial institutions, among other business entities willing to invest in the sugarcane growing town.

He dismissed allegations of favouritism and corruption in the allocation of the few housing stands serviced by his council, saying the allocation process was watertight. Mr Muchatukwa said no allocation of housing stands was done without the approval of full council, making it hard for senior council officials to be corrupt.

‘’If there are any corrupt activities in land allocation in this town, then that will be outside the purview of council because we have a transparent system that we use to allocate housing stands and that system is known by everyone,’’ said Mr Muchatukwa.

Chiredzi has three high density residential areas, one medium density suburb and two low-density suburbs.