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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU City Council has applied to Government for permission to commence selling residential and commercial stands.

The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works temporarily banned the local authority from selling commercial and residential stands in 2018 to allow the Land Audit Commission to carry out its mandate.

The Government instituted the audit in a bid to weed out land barons who have been conning unsuspecting potential house owners of their hard-earned money in botched land sales.

Council has more than 30 000 properties and more than 100 000 people on the housing waiting list.

In an interview, GCC mayor, Councillor Josiah Makombe said council wrote to the Government asking for cancellation of the moratorium.

He said it has been almost two years since council last sold commercial and residential stands, affecting revenue inflows.

“We have applied to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works to be allowed to dispose of commercial and residential stands.

“We were given a moratorium on disposing of land.

“As a local authority we were called and made our submissions. Now that the audit is over and findings have been announced, we feel we have to start disposing of land for our residents on the Council waiting list,” said Clr Makombe.

He said if the moratorium is lifted, council intends to dispose of stands through auctions.

“For commercial stands, we will advertise in the national newspaper the number and location of stands we have. We then provide a date and the highest bidder will get the stand.

“For residential stands, we will also advertise in the newspaper and give a date when residents on the council waiting list will come and buy on first come first served basis.

“We will implement complete transparency in disposing of the stands,” he said.

Clr Makombe said council is also considering leasing out land to potential businesspeople as opposed to complete sale to guard against having white elephants in town when owners fail to develop their stands.

“We have a lot of stands lying idle after the owners went broke or died. It is not our land but it is disadvantaging us.

“Therefore, we need to consider leasing land just like Government leases farms. That way we always have productive people occupying properties, meaning continued revenue for the local authority,” he said.