President to commission civil servants’ flats

PRESIDENT MNANGAGWA will this month commission multiple blocks of residential flats developed for public sector workers by the Government.

Twelve blocks of four-storey flats, which are now ready for occupation, have been built in Dzivaresekwa (Harare), Senga (Gweru) and Dombotombo (Marondera).

National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe told The Sunday Mail that the housing development programme is part of a broad plan to cut the 1,5 million national housing backlog.

“One other area we have been working on is the construction of civil servants’ houses throughout the country,” he said.

“That programme started in earnest in 2019 and by the end of this month (last month) or early next month (this month), you will be seeing His Excellency (President Mnangagwa) commissioning some blocks of flats in Marondera, Dzivaresekwa and Senga in the Midlands. This is part of the Social Housing Programme designed for civil servants.

“But note that we are not confined to these three workstations that I have referred to.”

The Government, he said, was expanding the construction of high-rise residential flats to rural centres to complement the Rural Transformation Programme.

Development of the flats has since commenced in Mutawatawa, Mashonaland East province.

“The President is very clear in terms of

Vision 2030 that we must uplift the lives of all marginalised communities, and these communities are found in the rural areas,” he added.

“We started with Mutawatawa as a pilot project, which has taken off the ground, but we are now planning to go into all the provinces and identifying rural district councils to work with. We are also cognisant of the fact that each province is endowed with natural resources.

“We want to work with the Ministry of

Mines and Mining Development so that we can discuss with mining companies to become part of the programme, in terms of developing housing for their personnel. That then becomes part of the broad rural development agenda.”

The Government is also expediting development of smart cities countrywide.

“We also have our focus on the development of smart cities,” he said.

“We have identified three sites for our smart cities pilot programme — Melfort (Mashonaland East), Figtree (Matabeleland South) and Chirundu (Mashonaland West).

“We could have started earlier on, but due to several challenges that were beyond our control . . . administrative challenges for that matter . . . I am happy now those things have been sorted out and we are ready to go.

“We want to start these smart cities and we want them to get off the ground as quickly as we can.”