Forex only for housing stands
THE Bulawayo City Council has availed stands in Pumula South that are exclusively sold in foreign currency, with interested individuals being given six months to settle the payment or risk losing them.
This comes a few weeks after the local authority also directed that beneficiaries of stands where servicing was left uncompleted after land developers abandoned the project, will have to pay for the completion of servicing using hard currency only.
In the latest development, the local authority last week flighted an advertisement for 117 Pumula South pre-sale high-density residential stands, where payment is only in foreign currency. The stands range between 200 and 476 square metres. A 200 square metre stand costs US$5 400, with the Value Added Tax pegged at US$783 while the deposit required is US$2 673.
As for the 476 square metre stand, the total price is US$10 000, Value Added Tax, US$1 450
ZIMBABWE will begin receiving 100MW from Zambia’s state-owned power utility Zesco early next month under a five-year deal, while a delegation from Mozambique is expected in the country today to finalise negotiations to supply an additional 150 MW to ease ongoing power cuts.
The delegation from Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), which is providing
THREE massive housing projects are on the cards in Victoria Falls through a partnership between Government and private sector, with a groundbreaking ceremony set for tomorrow on the sidelines of the 41st Shelter Afrique symposium.
On one of the projects, Government has partnered with Shelter Afrique, a pan-African banking institution that exclusively supports the development of affordable housing and real estate sector growth in Africa and these will be four blocks of flats with 164 units.
The other two are spearheaded by private sector developers in the city and will have a combined 120 units. As a shareholder to Shelter Afrique, Zimbabwe is receiving US$25 million for housing projects. National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said the groundbreaking ceremony will be done tomorrow as a side event to the annual general meeting.
He said these will be blocks of flats which will be divided into several units. Minister Garwe said the project is part of a revolving fund and the flats will be sold to affording citizens, but targeting middle income earners. There will also be a tour of the two sites of housing schemes spearheaded by some private sector and the deposit required is US$4 950.
“Applicants will be interviewed and those meeting the requirements of the scheme will be given offer letters on a first come first served basis. Please note that the stands are partially serviced. Once the six monthly instalment period lapses any non-compliant beneficiaries will lose their stands and be refunded in terms of council procedure. Those beneficiaries with full cash payments will have an added advantage,” reads the advertisement.
Contacted for comment, Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube defended the local authority’s decision to sell the stands exclusively in foreign currency saying there was a need for residents to accept the prevailing economic dynamics. He said they were caught in a catch 22 situation where they had to complete the servicing of the stands, purchase the needed equipment and also the need to address the housing backlog.
“We need to be honest with each other, as council we do not have the money to complete the servicing of those needs which require foreign currency, hence we are targeting the diaspora market especially. Further as a council 50MW to Zesa, will be in the country for a week-long visit.
The recent local power shortfall was worsened by depressed generation at Hwange and Harare thermal power stations, including the loss of one unit that produces 125MW at Kariba Power Station.
Zesa has since facilitated the creation of a group of intensive energy users to finance power imports from the region.
Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) acting developers.
“We are targeting the middle income cluster. These are not going to be given for free because this is a revolving fund, so we will sell them to people who can afford. We are also going to visit two construction sites being done by the private sector as they requested that we visit as they are working very closely with the ministry. One has 94 units and the other one has 26 units,” said the Minister.
He said the developments are a confirmation of the private sector’s heed to the country’s housing policy that on-site-off-site infrastructure must be prov i d ed before any super structure is constructed and the we desperately need equipment for us to embark on more of such developments and for us to purchase that equipment there is a need for foreign currency and we had to come up with a strategy for us to get that foreign currency,” said Mr Dube.
Questioned on the plight of the majority of home seekers that do not earn foreign currency, Mr Dube said their hands, as a local authority, were tied because of the prevailing economic circumstances.
“We are not discriminating anyone but we are in a difficult situation that needs us to think outside the box. I also do not get paid in foreign currency but this is one thing which we have to accept, this is what is prevailing on the ground,” said Mr Dube.
Meanwhile, the local authority has defended the huge bills received by residents saying that this was a reflection of the prevailing situation where the local authority had to index bills in foreign currency, with residents able to pay in local currency at the prevailing official exchange rate. Over the past weeks, residents have been receiving high bills and some took to social managing director Engineer Howard Choga told our Harare Bureau that the power imports were imminent.
“We signed power import deals with Zambia a long time ago, but we had not been getting electricity from that country because of cash flow challenges.
“Now, because we have prepaid, we expect this to be settled in the coming weeks and we will start receiving 100MW from Zambia. We have to prepay them a month before we receive the electricity.” densification call to preserve land and build structures going upwards.
“It’s a private sector call and response to Government housing policy that we must preserve land and build going upwards. Our major role as Government through the Ministry of National Housing is predominantly to facilitate delivery of housing and we are on record saying we want to provide at least 1.2 million houses by 2030 and we have come up with a programme which is aligned to the National Development Strategy (NDS1) where we want to deliver about 220 000 housing units by 2025,” said Minister
Garwe.
He said Government cannot achieve these targets alone hence partnerships with the private sector. He called for a collective approach by Government, private sector, pension funds , media to express their displeasure. A resident at Selbourne Park said he was recently billed $80 000, while another resident at Queens Park said he was billed $90 000.
Responding to written questions from Sunday News, council corporate communications manager Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said the bills may be viewed as huge, but council has not increased tariffs in US dollars.
“Council has not increased service charges but has aligned the ZWL charges to their US dollar equivalent at the time of budgeting using the interbank rate. This action was taken to avert service delivery collapse in the city. ZWL costs of providing services have increased due to exchange rate movements. Residents and stakeholders who have queries are free to approach any Council Revenue office for explanations and the breakdown of their bills. The council billing system is robust,” said Mrs Mpofu.
She said for the convenience of the paying public, the Revenue Hall will be open from 7am to 4pm during week days and from 8am to 3pm during weekends.
Zesa secures 250MW power imports from Zambia, Mozambique
The power import deal with Zesco has a three to five-year tenure.
“Currently, we are getting 50MW from Cahora Bassa and 50MW from EDM in Mozambique. We had signed a deal for 200MW with EDM, but we were only accessing 50MW. So they are sending a delegation into the country tomorrow (today) and they will be in the country for the whole week so we will discuss how we can access the remaining 150MW.”
164 unit blocks of flats for Victoria Falls
insurance companies, corporates individual citizens to achieve the targets.
While there is significant construction of hotels and lodges, Victoria Falls struggles with both accommodation for residents who are mostly employed in the tourism industry and office space. This has seen property owners inflating rentals, making life unaffordable for ordinary citizens.
Minister Garwe said Government was aware of the accommodation challenges in Victoria Falls hence the partnership with the private sector to close the gap. The resort city housing backlog is around 15 000. The Minister said Government primary focus is to provide social housing for every worker including civil servants in Victoria Falls and countrywide to address housing the backlog.
According to the Shelter Afrique research arm, Centre of Excellence, the overall shortage of housing in Africa is estimated to be 56 million housing units and the backlog has to be cleared by 2063.
Minister Garwe, who is already in Victoria Falls to finalise preparations and welcome his counterparts and delegates to the auspicious event, said preparations were going well.
and
“In terms of attendance, as of yesterday we had 25 member countries who had confirmed attendance at ministerial level. So we are expecting 25 Housing Ministers to be present. I understand we are likely to be having at least three governors of reserve banks including ours, but we are also going to be having senior officials from Ministries of Finance from the various shareholder countries,” said Minister Garwe.
He said the programme effectively starts tomorrow with the official opening.
Major international financiers, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank and other developers are expected to attend. According to the programme, there are high level speakers who include Shelter Afrique chairman Mr Ephraim Bichetero and the organisation’s chief executive Mr Kingsley Muwowo.
African Finance Ministers will have a Roundtable which will be attended by Reserve Bank Governors from member states.
There will also be another Ministerial roundtable of Ministers in charge of housing and plenary sessions to discuss a cross section of issues relating to housing. There will also be a business development engaging session with Zimbabwean developers as well as exhibitions that will run parallel to the conference. Thursday is dedicated for the AGM.–@ncubeleon
The Zimbabwe Power Company – Zesa’s power generation arm – is currently producing 1 201MW at its five power stations against peak winter season demand of 2 200MW. Last week, the biggest power generation plant in Zimbabwe, Kariba South, was generating only 758MW against an installed capacity of 1 050MW. Hwange Power Station was generating 411MW against an installed capacity of 920MW.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Mr Kurai Matsheza said the current power problems were threatening industry’s survival.
“That Zesa has unlocked some 300MW in imports is a welcome development and as industry we expect that to start feeding into industry, and (we) also hope that it’s a firm arrangement. Whilst the 300MW is welcome, we need to hear from the power utility when 2 100MW will be sustainably supplied and also to grow in line with demand growth.”
At last week’s post-Cabinet briefing, Energy and Power Development Minister Zhemu Soda said equipment breakdowns at major power stations were affecting generation.
“We lost one unit at Kariba Power Station which produces 125MW, that is unit 6, and the fault that was detected requires that the thrust bearing be taken to South Africa, and the bearing will be brought back on August 12. We also had challenges from Hwange but we have since recovered two units.”
Hwange Power Station, he said, was running on two units last week, but it is now back to four units and as of Monday generation stood at 407MW.
“We also had problems with Harare station three. It was also out of service but it has been brought back to service this afternoon (Tuesday).”
However, completion of Unit 7 in November this year and Unit 8 at Hwange Power Station by March next year will add 600MW to the grid and help ensure reliable and sustainable supplies to meet growing demand.