Red flag over Masvingo stands
THE Commission of Inquiry into the sale of State land in and around urban areas last week expressed concern over the state of affairs at Victoria Ranch in Masvingo City where close to 12 000 housing units were developed by private players over the past few years.
The commission took exception to the sudden emergence of an expansive residential settlement on the western parts of the country’s oldest town without corresponding investment in basic infrastructure such as water and sewer reticulation and other critical services such as schools and clinics.
Land barons are believed to have taken advantage of a runaway housing backlog in Masvingo City to subdivide State land at Victoria Ranch into residential stands, which they sold to desperate home-seekers without servicing it.
The commission said it would soon recommend to Government to stop any further residential developments at Victoria Ranch so that the situation does not spiral out of control and turn into a humanitarian disaster.
In an interview with the media here on the sidelines of the Masvingo leg of the ongoing nationwide public hearings on the sale of State land in and around urban areas, the commission’s secretary, Mrs Virginia Mabhiza said there was urgent need to stop further housing developments at Victoria Ranch.
She equated the sprawling Victoria Ranch suburb as a “Second Masvingo City” owing to the magnitude of housing developments that took place within a very short space of time yet the original suburbs in the country’s oldest town took decades to set up.
“Victoria Ranch now has between 10 000 and 12 000 housing units that were built within a very short space of time, which is almost the same as the 16 000 housing units that were in the original Masvingo city that took decades to build,” said Mrs Mabhiza.
“The fact of the matter is that land developers at Victoria Ranch focussed more on housing development without the corresponding infrastructural development.
“The sewer and water systems that are there are not commensurate with the rapid expansion of the area in terms of housing.
“There is possibly only one school and no clinic at all and what it means is that existing services in the original Masvingo City will be choked owing to demand from residents of Victoria Ranch.”
Victoria Ranch suburb, which comprises houses built under Lot A of Victoria Ranch and Remainder of Victoria was established after individual land developers and consortiums started selling residential stands about four years ago.