The Sunday Mail
Debra Matabvu
Harare’s oldest suburb, Mbare, is set to get a facelift with construction of modern high rise housing units to benefit at least 10 000 households.
The Sunday Mail has established that the project, to begin next year, may see the demolition and/or renovation of dilapidated colonial era hostels in the area.
The high rise units will be constructed by China Huashi Enterprises Co Ltd as part of an agreement between Harare and Beijing.
Government, council and Huashi have already given prospective sites the thumbs up. Available information shows that baseline and architectural studies will soon be undertaken to establish the number of occupants of the old hostels.
The proposed housing units will be in four designs: 500 three-bedroom units, 4 500 two-bedroom units, 4 500 one-bedroom units, and 500 bed-sitters.
Though the total project cost could not be immediately established, financing will be through the Infrastructural Development Bank of Zimbabwe via mortgages for beneficiaries. The project is part of Government’s home ownership scheme, which seeks to avail affordable and decent accommodation to all — especially low-income earners.
According to minutes from the latest Harare City full council meeting, the corporate services and housing directorate said the arrangement followed Government’s recent memorandum of understanding with China for nationwide housing development.
“The Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing under government-to-government arrangement between Zimbabwe and China had a memorandum of understanding for the development of housing projects nationwide,” they read in part.
“It was from that arrangement that China Huashi was proposing development of 10 000 housing units within Harare.
“An inter-departmental team that had meetings with the Ministry of Local Government officials and China Huashi representatives and a tour of prospective sites for the housing development was conducted.
“The team had settled for Mbare hostel area as ideal since the project may be two pronged; new flats and the refurbishment of the existing flats.
“The new flats would be developed on vacant spaces between existing hostels so that residents would be moved into new flats then the old ones may either be demolished or refurbished depending on the engineering and architectural reports.”
Council has over the years hinted at demolishing Matererini, Shawasha, Matapi, Nenyere and Mbare hostels.
The flats were built as single quarters for mostly black male workers during the colonial era. They reportedly house 60 000 people today, with as many as nine sharing a room.
Decent and affordable housing is one of the key goals of Zim-Asset under which Government targets to facilitate construction of 318 000 housing units by 2018; over 100 000 of them in Harare.
‘Address infrastructure issues’
Percy Toriro
Harare has a critical housing backlog of at least 500 000 units. This means the demand currently far outstrips supply.
The proposed development of 10 000 flat units in Mbare will go a long way in contributing towards housing for Harare residents.
The development of high rise flats is also in conformity with the provisions of the Harare Master Plan, which advocates for vertical development since land is fast running out.
One of the current challenges of Harare today is urban sprawl, where we continue to expand outwards, thereby eating into fertile agricultural land.
By so doing we are threatening the food security of Harare and its hinterland. From an environmental perspective, what we are doing increases the carbon footprint of Harare’s food.
The proposed development is, therefore, most welcome.
We, however, must address infrastructure issues in Mbare in order to accommodate the new developments.
These include roads to cater for increased traffic, water reservoirs, and trunk sewers. We must also plan for ancillary services and amenities such as schools, recreational and economic infrastructure to meet other needs beyond housing.
There are several options for dealing with old flats in Mbare.
They may be demolished, redesigned and rebuilt. They may also be refurbished.
They were designed as single-sex hostels for bachelors and their design suited that use.
Now they are being used by families. There is need for a significant facelift if anyone is to utilise them with some measure of dignity.
Mr Percy Toriro is president of the Zimbabwe Institute of Rural and Urban Planners
