The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council is reportedly considering changing its by-laws that will give the local authority power to repossess condemned buildings, which the owners have gone for years without renovating.
Impeccable council sources revealed that the local authority was in a quandary to address the issue of the rising number of condemned buildings which were seemingly abandoned by their owners hence the need to alter the by-laws to force the owners to renovate their buildings or risk losing them.
This comes in the backdrop of the local authority revealing that they had to date condemned 35 buildings in the Central Business District.
Responding to questions from Sunday News, the local authority’s spokesperson, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, confirmed that they were working to address their by-laws particularly related to the issue of dilapidated buildings.
“Council through its Building Inspectorate, issues out notices to non-compliant properties whose buildings are either dilapidated or need facelifts. This is an ongoing exercise. Unfortunately council does not have any enabling by-laws to force the owners of buildings to renovate.
“As council we are consulting to see if by-laws can be revised and or crafted to deal specifically with dilapidated buildings. At the present moment we encourage companies to repair the dilapidated buildings,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Questioned on what legal options the local authority had to sue owners who abandon their dilapidated buildings, Mrs Mpofu said she was still waiting for the response from the council’s legal department.
However, councillors who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed they were in the process of drafting a motion that will see them being able to take over buildings that had continuously ignored renovation orders or gone for years being abandoned, with the owners even defaulting on paying their rates to the local authority.
“Yes, that is an option we are working on. As it is we are consulting our legal section so that we don’t face any litigation after the by-law is passed.
“As councillors we noted that there are a lot of buildings which were condemned but the owners have continually ignored notices to renovate them and further they have even failed to pay their rates hence are owing the local authority thousands of dollars.
“What we want to happen is that the owners should know the threat that they risk losing their buildings if they don’t renovate their buildings because as it is these buildings that pose a risk to the public,” said the source.
Contacted for comment Affirmative Action Group (AAG) vice-president Mr Sam Ncube commended the local authority saying that it was high time the local authority addresses the issue of dilapidated buildings which were being abandoned by their owners.
“As AAG we were one of the first organisations to make noise about these abandoned buildings. I remember when Dr Dumiso Dabengwa was still Home Affairs Minister we actually took him on a tour of the city to see some of these buildings, calling on the Government to do something to address this issue.
“What we are saying is that the Government and the local authority should do something to come up with binding laws that will force the building owners to either maintain or sell them outrightly. I must emphasise that some of these building owners are selfish such that they abandon their buildings but go on to religiously pay their rates so as to silence council, which is very unfortunate,” said Mr Ncube.
He said one of the major problems was that the by-laws which the local authority relied on were outdated hence their laxity to address such anomalies.
In recent years the city has experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of abandoned, neglected and derelict buildings in the Central Business District most of them reportedly by white businesspeople. Some of the buildings include Armona Mansions located at the intersection of Robert Mugabe Way and Fourth Avenue, Chrystal at the corner of George Silundika Street and Second Avenue and Banff along Herbert Chitepo Street.
Early this year one person died when a building that also houses popular fast food outlet Nandos collapsed. A couple of weeks ago the local authority passed a resolution to demolish a building that was burnt down in an inferno as it now poses a danger to the public.
The building which is at the corner of 11th Avenue and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Street near Magnet House, is owned by Nicktrend Investments Services and has been vacant for some years. According to the Real Estate Institution of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo has one of the lowest occupancy ratios in the country. The shortage of office space has seen some residential flats in the city being turned into offices.
