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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Government is set to build more houses to ease accommodation shortages for its workers deployed to Beitbridge Border Post, an official has said. The acting chairperson of the Facilities Task Team for the Border Efficiency Management Systems, Ms Shingi Mudzamiri said the housing project was part of the One-Stop-Border Post initiative.

Speaking during a stakeholders meeting held recently to set into motion the implementation of the One-Stop-Border-Post between Zimbabwe and South Africa at Beitbridge, Ms Mudzamiri said besides constructing houses, they will also incorporate the 64 garden flats left at various stages of construction during the Beitbridge Redevelopment Programme. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce chairs the national technical task team.

“We have been allocated seven hectares of land by Beitbridge Town Council where we intend to build flats for Government workers deployed to the border. The actual number of houses will be based on the outcome of streamlined border procedures. It has become apparent that among other things, accommodation and infrastructure shortages is affecting operations at Beitbridge,” she said.

Ms Mudzamiri said plans were now at an advanced stage considering that the One-Stop-Border-Post was now a reality. She said various Government departments were running with low strength staff, while others were crammed in the few available houses.
“We have been working on a database to establishment the actual numbers in terms of accommodation shortages.”