Delay in Mkoba 21 stands allocation, opens can of worms

Clive Tatenda Makumbe in Zimbabwe

An investigation into the Mkoba 21 housing scheme has opened a can of worms on a series of scandals which include the illegal sale of land, gross negligence and incompetence.

This comes after residents approached the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Owen Ncube regarding the delay over the servicing of Mkoba 21 stands which were availed more than 10 years ago.

Investigations by NGO Africa Watch revealed that, the creation of the special committee was aimed at interrogating issues which were delaying the servicing of Mkoba 21 housing scheme by three contractors namely, Sheasham Investments, Wack Drive and CASAS Properties.

Reliable sources told this publication that, the special committee was tasked to look into issues which include: the selling of stands without the certificate of compliance, appointment of Engineer Matirongo as the Mkoba 21 Housing Scheme project officer without a council resolution, and absence of monthly site meetings with the developers of Mkoba 21 project.

The Mkoba 21 Housing scheme special committee inquiry is said to include Councillors, Lovemore Choto (Ward 6), Philemon Mawere (Ward 16), William Mazango (Ward 18), Girely Zvidzai (Ward 3), Faith Chuma (Ward 2), Director for Engineering Services Masauso Stores, The Acting Chamber Secretary Tapiwa Marerwa, The Town Planner Kudakwashe Chikuku, The Land Surveyor Brian Mandima, The Acting Estate and Valuation Manager Dr Mlambo, The Principal Administrative Officer Mbangana and Administrative Officer R Matowa and Gweru District Development Coordinator (DDC) Tarisai Mudadigwa.

Reliable sources told this publication that, members of the special committee observed several issues concerning the delay of the Mkoba 21 housing scheme project.

He said (name withheld) that, Gweru City Council (GCC) and Wack Drive entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) without establishing the actual number of stands on the portion allocated to Wack Drive, which is currently being interrogated by the engineering services department.

The source revealed that, GCC and Wack Drive had agreed to sale the stands before they were fully serviced and to residents that were not on council waiting list.

Which has forced the special committee to call, the Acting Director of Housing and Community Services Mrs. Unity Jaji to explain the reasons for selling undeveloped stands without a certificate of compliance, which is yet to be uncovered.

Furthermore, Sheasham Investments is seeking a contract extension from council over the Mkoba housing scheme, and are yet to have a memorandum of agreement with Wack Drive to jointly construct the main sewer line which will delay the handover of stands to their respective beneficiaries.

Reliable sources revealed that, when Sheasham Investments and council entered into an agreement, council agreed to allocate over 1000 surveyed and undeveloped high density stands with sizes ranging from 200m² to 600m² using the 70:30 sharing ratio principle. Which meant that, Sheasham Investments was to receive 70 percent, while Gweru City Council getting the remaining 30 percent of the earnings.

Later to be discovered by council that, they had already sold all of the stands and Sheasham Investments was only going to get around 180 stands, further delaying the Mkoba 21 housing scheme project.

Thus, forcing council to compensate Sheasham Investments by providing them, stands at Mkoba 20 extension and some stands at Gwapa, were the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) is yet to provide an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) because of the Woodlands dumpsite which is yet to be relocated near the Gwapa area.

In an interview with a former councillor (name withheld) he stated that, the 70:30 percent principle was a bad deal for Gweru city and should have been re-negotiated or cancelled.

“That deal was doomed from the beginning. It was a botched deal!!! Council employees mislead use and some councillors who took the bait, benefited from the botched deal. If any council was in their right state of mind, they would not have agreed to such because this costed residents dearly.

Each and every resident that has stand at Mkoba 21 and also Randolph has the right to protest and demonstrate against council because of the damage done towards their aspirations and dreams of building their homes. Residents sacrificed their hard-earned money for their future. Council could have at least negotiated for a 60:40 ratio for the project,” he said.

“The deal between Sheasham Investments and council were utter lies and deception. The land that was given to Sheasham Investments for them to service had already been sold, (we mean all stands) which council had to compensate by giving them around 400 stands at Gwapa and some stands at Mkoba 20 extension which are currently been sold to the public at premium prices which defeats the vision and mission of serving the people.

“Sheasham Investments are in big trouble. They have to wait for EMA to provide the EIA certificate for them to service the Gwapa stands, because council cannot afford to decommission and relocate the Woodlands dumpsite. For the relocation of the dumpsite, it needs roughly around USD$3million because it’s a process and not an overnight job,” he said.

The source further stated that, CASAS Properties had no capacity to develop the Mkoba 21 stands or the vending projects contracted to them.

“We gave CASAS Properties some of the stands at Mkoba 21 and nothing has been done. At the same time, we gave them vending projects during the COVID-19, that’s back in 2020 at Ivene Rank, Kombayi Wholesale Market, Kombayi Food Court and Warehouse, and Mtapa Vending Site which are far from being finished, which they promised to finish the projects in weeks.

“Gweru City Council is busy chasing vendors in town and destroying their only source of sustenance, which is wrong,” he said.

When Gweru Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRA) Executive Director Cornilia Selipiwe was reached for comment, he could not hide the betrayal of council towards residents, vision 2030 of creating affordable, sustainable, modern, functional housing and social amenities in the city of Gweru.

“This is totally disappointing that council would fail to serve residents or fulfill their mandate. This is utter betrayal towards the needs of residents and the country. We call upon all residents not only beneficiaries of Mkoba 21 stands to join together in putting our council to their toes so that they remain accountable, transparent and respectful towards residents they serve.

“Enough is enough. Its high time council answer to why stands are not been availed,” he said.

Gweru City Council Communications and Public Relations Officer Vimbai Chingwaramusee stated that, council is currently engaging contractors to speed up the completion at Mkoba 21 housing projects.

“The sewer line has been there the contractors are just joining to the main sewer line. Its part of their contractual obligations. Realising the demand for accommodation the local authority decided to offer stands to residents. It was rather unfortunate that as we assumed that development could speed up
but it did not turn out that way.

“Council did appointed its technocrats to oversee the projects as it began in 2014 up to 2016 when the majority of the stands were sold. In 2020 then to ensure speeding up services, council decided to engage partners to develop Mkoba 21 stands. However, as a local authority we are keen to speed up the development processes to ensure that people start building,” she said.

Were the Mkoba 21 stands saga began

In 2014, Gweru City Council started selling the Mkoba 21 residential stands after a full council passed a resolution at a meeting chaired by former mayor Hamutendi Kombayi.

Notifying those on the housing waiting list, must be given first preference, since council had a waiting list of over 30 000 residents suggesting that, there was a huge housing backlog to be filled, with around 6 600 stands to be provided to Gweru residents.

About 15 stands were allocated for institutional and commercial use whilst the remaining stands were allocated for residential purposes.

Banks such as National Building Society (NBS) turned down the Mkoba 21 housing scheme project, forcing council to engage other private developers since council had no financial capacity to develop the area.

Out of the 6 600 residential stands, more than 1 000 stands were reserved for workers at the local authority as compensation for non-payment salaries.

According to the Auditor-General of 2020, it revealed that, the City Council was utilizing estate funds for recurrent expenditure contrary to section 300 of the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:15] which requires estate funds to be utilized for capital related expenditure “purchase and servicing of land”.

The analysis of the estates account revealed that, funds amounting to US$6 870 815 which were not justified as to how it was utilized. The same amount represents stands which were sold.

Reliable sources (name withheld) stated that, most of these funds were used without council resolution and other purposes that include salaries, travel allowances, packages (cars and benefits) for key staff and other service delivery issues, which delayed the servicing of Mkoba 21, Shamrock and Randolph stands.

It is said that, these funds were reserved for the servicing of the Mkoba 21 housing scheme, projects that include purchasing of heavy equipment to install water and sanitation systems, streetlights, roads and drainages for beneficiaries after the certificate of compliance has been issued.

Valuation of Mkoba 21 stands

Valuation rolls are lists of properties situated within the boundaries of a given local authority compiled for the purposes of billing and taxation.

The Urban Councils Act Chapter 29:15 provides for the creation of valuation offices by councils.

At that time, council’s valuation roll was last updated in 2005 and later updated in 2013. However, the 2013 valuation roll was not conclusive as some properties were still to be valued hence serious loss of revenue.

Investigations by NGO Africa Watch publication disclose council was not maintaining a record of estates debtors to an extent that, revenue accumulated from the sale of stands on credit, which was not known in the financial statements of council. The estates debtors’ database was incomplete, as receipts were not posted to each resident estate debtor’s account.

Moreover, several workers at the department of housing and community services were selling a single stand to more than two residents, due to poor internal controls.

In addition, there was no co-ordination between the finance and the housing and community services department which created loopholes for council employees to take advantage of.

Henceforth, council engaged the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for a general revaluation of the city, while stating that, funding had been provided for in the 2015 Council budget announced by the former Finance Director Tarisayi Edgar Mwedzi.

In 2016, the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing ordered council to stop the sale of stands owned by the municipality to prospective buyers since there was no valuations of the land and the secret manner at which they were sold.

The same year, the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing sent a circular ministry seeking authority to sell stands in Mkoba 21 since they had no income to fund service delivery projects such as refuse collection, water and sanitation, and income generating projects e.g. brewery company to sustain operations.

In 2018, the council led by former town clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza and her team recommended the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) to councillors led by former mayor of Gweru and current Gweru Urban Member of Parliament (MP) Josiah Makombe, to approve their uninvited bid to service Mkoba 21 stands and St Annes Lundi Park stands.

In 2019, councillors requested a due diligence visit of the projects that IDBZ was conducting at Kariba in Nyamunga low density area, which they discovered nothing was happening since the bank was experiencing financial challenges due fluctuations in monetary and fiscal policies, which was rejected at a full council meeting.

Henceforth, council had to organize a business conference in 2020 at town house that saw many developers being invited to bid for the Mkoba 21 housing scheme project, with Sheasham Investments, WackDrive and CASAS Properties being contracted for the housing project.