Tongaat builds 5 499 houses for employees
HIPPO Valley Estates, a subsidiary of Tongaat Hulett, says it has built 5 499 houses from 1974 for its employees in Chiredzi, a sugar producing area in the Lowveld, in a bid to provide decent, orderly and affordable accommodation for the staff.
Of the 5 499 residential houses, 221 houses were built between 2007 and 2014 with the rest having been built between 1974 and 2007.
Given that most of the houses were built a long time ago, the company is embarking on a vigorous renovation exercise to improve the old structures.
In a statement Tongaat Hulett said: “As parts of employees’ benefits and welfare Hippo Valley Estates offers decent accommodation and educational facilities for their children.
“The housing units are dotted around the Estate due to the nature of operations where employees should stay in proximity to their workplaces while their children access quality education closest to home.
“General employees, who constitute 92 of the whole staff, are accommodated in villages that were constructed between 1974 and 2014 and have a total of 5 499 housing units,” reads part of the statement. Tongaat said that the majority of the houses meet the requisite standards for residential accommodation and come compete with basic utilities.
The company recognises the need to either replace old and outdated structures and where possible to renovate some structures to meet the minimum Tongaat Hulett housing standards.
Due to the difficult socio-economic environment, which adversely impacted all businesses in general, resulted in Tongaat suspending construction of new houses for the employees.
“Given the positive economic outlook and a planned environment performance, the company has launched its internal housing scheme of providing all its employees with accommodation that meet the Tongaat Hulett’s standard. The project plan will include refurbishment and construction of houses over a period of four years,” said Tongaat.
Ablution facilities that do not comply with the company’s decent housing standards will be renovated under a two year project. Maintenance and painting of existing structures will be initiated at the earliest possible time. Meanwhile, Government is planning to launch Command Housing programme before the end of this year to ease accommodation pressures across the country.
Under the programme, old houses in urban areas and towns will be upgraded to meet local authorities’ minimum requirements and standards.
The housing projects represent another Government initiative in line with the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) plan to ease housing shortages in the country.
Under the all-inclusive housing initiative, Government has targeted to build more than 300 000 houses by 2018 to ease the housing backlog which currently stands at about 1,25 million.
Models under the scheme include semi-detached apartments, flats as well as apartments with alternative building technologies.
Government is targeting every city, Kadoma included, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare, where there has been old accommodation, commonly referred to as misana yenzou to improve living standards in the country.