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Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
HOMESEEKERS in Bulawayo who bought residential stands under council’s pre-sale scheme have bemoaned delays by the local authority to service the stands.

Bulawayo City Council (BCC) last week revealed that it was struggling to service more than 2 000 pre-sale residential stands that were bought more than two years ago.

The local authority introduced the pre-sale residential stands scheme in 2012, with the programme delivering 3 325 stands by 2017.

However, council says economic challenges saw the programme being halted in 2018 as contractors started demanding foreign currency that council did not have.

Homeseekers who spoke to the news crew said delays by council in servicing the stands were disrupting their plans.

Some of them expressed concern that they might end up failing to build the houses when council decides to finally hand them over their stands.

Mr Simon Maphosa who bought a stand in Magwegwe West said council was not clear on the way forward.

“I bought my stand in 2016 but up to date we have not been allowed to start building. In our last communication with the council in August last year, the local authority was saying that delays in servicing of stands was caused by some people who have not fully paid for their stands. It also told us that contractors who were engaged to service the stands required foreign currency to service the stands but it did not have the money. Since then, council has not been clear on the way forward,” said Mr Maphosa.

He said with the prevailing economic environment building a house might end up being a pipe dream.

“My biggest worry is that with all these years that have passed, we might end up failing to construct the houses. I was forced to channel the money I had for the project to other things. When we bought the stands, we were paying using US dollars but the country reintroduced the Zimbabwe dollar and now we are back to the multi-currency system. So, you can imagine all these changes could have affected my money if I had kept it saying it was for construction. Council is also not coming clean on the whole issue,” he said.

Another homeseeker, Mr Innocent Moyo, who bought a stand in Emganwini, said despite paying for the stand in full, council has not granted him permission to start developing it.

“The worst thing is that council is not communicating with us but when they wanted their money; they could call us and even threaten to dispossess the stands from us. I have my building plans approved but when I wanted to start constructing my house, council told me that the stands have not been serviced. It’s been more than two years since this happened but council has kept us in the dark over when the stands will be fully serviced to allow us to start building our houses,” said Mr Moyo.

Bulawayo mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni last week said the pre-sale scheme encountered challenges in 2017 but council has started selling new stands in Selborne Park suburb to complete the outstanding projects.

“While the project started very well up to 2017 where a total of 3 325 stands were delivered, 2018 saw teething problems grinding to a halt nine running projects with a total of 2 225 stands. Only one project was successfully delivered in 2020, Selborne Park with a total of 77 stands.

“These stands were sold to those with access to foreign currency. The proceeds from the project were also used to procure imported materials such as bituminous materials to complete all the 10 projects,” said Clr Mguni. — @nqotshili