Local contractors poised to get modern skills

GOVERNMENT is set to equip local contractors with modern skills to speed up housing delivery, National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe has said.

Under the National Strategy Development 1 (NDS1), the Government had set a target of 220 000 housing units by 2025, which has since been revised to one million over the same period.

Zimbabwe’s housing backlog stands at 1,2 million.

Minister Garwe said new technologies have been adopted in other countries and proven to be effective.

“We are migrating from the traditional ways of constructing by using new technologies.

“The global trends dictate that new technologies are the way to go in housing delivery,” said Minister Garwe.

Discussions are currently underway with foreign countries to conduct training with local contractors.

“We have had discussions with companies that provide new technologies from other parts of the world.

“We have a delegation that is coming from Egypt, from the African Federation for Construction Contractors Association, whom we intend to sign memorandum of understanding so that they can train our engineers and contractors in new technology designs and applications,” he said.

“As you are aware, housing delivery is not a Government mandate alone, it is the whole of Zimbabwe approach — developers, banks, pension funds and insurance.

“They are all working with Government to ensure that we deliver at least one million houses by 2025, and by 2030, we will not have any issues to do with accommodation throughout the country.”

Minister Garwe said the programme that involves construction of flats in rural areas for civil servants is ongoing.

“Government is also constructing flats in rural district councils, and we have started with Mutawatawa.

“We intend to be doing that over the next five years.

“Every rural district must have a block of flats so that civil servants who are domiciled in those areas will also have access to affordable accommodation,” he added.

“We also have housing programmes in other parts of the country, such as Bulawayo, Gweru, Dzivaresekwa and Marondera, which Government is financing.

“Our programme is not really new. It is a continuation of the projects we started five years ago, of delivering housing units by 2025.”