Residents Voices – Issue 84 (26 October 2012)
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| Residents, mostly elderly women, demonstrating against the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) this morning. |
DOZENS of residents
from Emganwini’s Millenium Housing Scheme area in Bulawayo this morning besieged
Nketa Housing Offices demanding title deeds for the houses they occupy and
protesting the monthly rentals they are paying. After the demonstration, they
left letters addressed to Bulawayo Mayor, Councilor Thaba Moyo, Town Clerk
Middleton Nyoni and the city’s Director of Housing and Community Services, Isaiah
Magagula stating their demands. A copy of the letter was also forwarded to the
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA).
In the letter, the
residents said they felt aggrieved by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) which
they accused of fleecing them by demanding payment for houses whose cost they
said was covered by donors. They argued
that the Millennium Housing Scheme was aimed at improving the livelihood of
poor residents who were living in squalor at Sidojiwe Hostels following
intervention by donors who financed the whole project. The residents thus
argued that they were not meant to be paying rentals for the houses, since the
cost of the houses was covered by donors, not the local authority.
In interviews during
the demonstration, the residents revealed that they had resorted to staging a
demonstration after efforts to engage in dialogue with the Mayor on the issue
proved fruitless.
“We held a meeting with
the Mayor more than a month ago, and he promised that he would facilitate a
meeting between us (Emganwini Millenium Housing residents’ leaders) and BCC
officials including himself, the director of housing and the director of
financial services. He said he was going to contact us, but until now, we haven’t
heard from him,” said one of the residents’ leaders who declined to be named. “This
demonstration is therefore an attempt to get the attention of the council on
this issue, so that something is done to immediately solve the problem,” she
said.
The residents revealed
that they had accrued massive bills due to the monthly rentals they pay over
and above service charges, which are pegged at $42 per month. As a result, they
said most of them had had their water disconnected on numerous occasions and
lived in fear of having their property seized by the local authority for
failure to pay the rentals.
While BPRA does not
have BCC’s side on the issue, the association is taking the demands of the
residents seriously and believes that it is important for BCC to move swiftly
towards addressing the concerns of the residents. BPRA is concerned that there
seem to be information gaps on the handling of the Millenium Housing Scheme in
Emganwini which could have compromised transparency and accountability in the
scheme. The association thus calls upon BCC to immediately avail information on
what the Millenium Housing Scheme entailed and also address the residents of
Emganwini on their concerns.
Regards
Information Department
Bulawayo
Progressive Residents Association
Bus. Tel: +263 9 61196
Cell: +263 772 516 729
Twitter: @byopra
Facebook: www.facebook/uhlelo.lwezakhamizi
Blog: bprainfo.blogspot.com
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