The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is in the process of crafting a corporate policy meant to bring sanity and address the impasse following a number of projects left in limbo by private developers.
More than 3 000 stands that were being developed by private developers have been left uncompleted with the local authority forced to take legal action to resolve the impasse. Some of the projects affected included Emganwini 367 stands, Tshabalala (44), Magwegwe West (390), Woodville (144) and Emhlangeni Phase Two (502).
The local authority has had to refer some of these projects for arbitration in a bid to force the developers to complete the projects. Responding to questions from Sunday News, BCC corporate communications manager, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said they had not abandoned the projects as was being alluded to in the public domain hence the move to craft a corporate policy to guide them on the completion of the projects. She said council has been making various efforts to ensure the completion of the legal process and finalise these projects.
“Council’s inter-departmental committee comprising of representatives from the Financial Services, Housing and Community Services, Legal, Health Services and Engineering Services are crafting a corporate policy for completing the outstanding works on pre-sale servicing projects. The inter-departmental committee is constantly engaging the committees representing the beneficiaries to ensure transparency and fairness,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Meanwhile, according to the latest council report the local authority has eight projects that are pending due to the disputes with the contractors, with outstanding works pegged at US$10 million.
Tzircalle Brothers has the most projects that it abandoned; 367 stands in Emganwini, 44 in Tshabalala and 280 stands in Magwegwe West.
Aggregate Private Limited has 217 stands in Highmount and 213 in Magwegwe Extension, the other 280 stands in Pumula South had the tender offer withdrawn after the company failed to sign the contract.
The other projects are 144 stands in Woodville under Asphalt Products and 502 stand in Emhlangeni Phase 2 which were expected to be developed by Stelix Civils Private Limited.
Four of these projects have since commenced development works with council coming up with an implementation strategy to complete the ongoing servicing projects as they were free from disputes or where the site had been handed back to council.
These include Emhlangeni Phase Two where roads are at 10 percent development, water; 25 percent with sewer works at zero percent.
“At Emhlangeni Phase Two in-house teams hired a plant and equipment on an “as and when” required basis. On roads, no progress this month due to bulldozer 665 and 668 all not operational hence there were no bush clearing activities on site to create work for road construction activities.
Motor Grader 733 still not operational since August 2021. On water obsolete pipes recovered from site. More sewer materials were delivered to site by the contractor during the month,” reads the report.
The Magwegwe extension and Pumula South phase two projects have both been re-tendered while in Woodville North in-house teams and hired plant and equipment on an “as and when” required basis.
In 2019, the local authority revealed that they were adopting a new housing development policy that will see land developers not selling stands to home seekers, as this would be the sole responsibility of the local authority.
In the new policy, private developers no longer buy virgin land and sell undeveloped stands to residents but are expected to service the land with water, sewer and tarred roads first.
