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Tawanda Mangoma in Chiredzi
Chiredzi Town Council has threatened to repossess residential stands, which have not been fully paid off in the new suburb of Makondo Extension, where it has been struggling to provide services such as water and sewer due to lack of funds. Council gave notice that it will repossess stands that have not been fully paid off in the past 10 years triggering panic amongst residents with arrears.

The development comes as some of the paid-up residents in the suburb have already sued council for failure to install sewer and water reticulation and roads in Makondo Extension.

Town secretary Mr Charles Muchatukwa on Tuesday said council was owed over $5 million for housing stands.

He said several petitions have been sent to council by residents demanding provision of services such as running water in Makondo.

“We are equally concerned by the snail pace at which residents have been paying for the stands, which they benefited at Makondo Extension,” he said.

“Council is owed close to $5 million dollars for housing stands, which if paid in full will enable council to open tenders for road development and sewer installation at Makondo.”

Mr Muchatukwa said council was now finalising requisite paper work to start repossessing stands which are yet to be fully paid for.

“On our part as council we admit that we made a blunder by not taking action against residents with arrears for housing stands when the initial cut-date for payment lapsed, however, we are now left with no option except to repossess stands from those who have not paid in full to allocate them to those on the waiting list,” he said.

The Chiredzi Town Council chair said council could no longer continue to short-change residents who have paid for their stands in full.

Zanu-PF Chiredzi West aspiring Member of Parliament Cde Farai Musikavanhu cautioned that there was need for an independent audit to establish why council was dragging its feet to provide services in land earmarked for housing development.

“From the information that I have, the residents paid money for serviced housing stands and started constructing their homes in the hope that council would quickly provide roads, water and sewer and this didn’t materialise,” said Cde Musikavanhu.

“To me the issue of residents being asked to pay top-ups in a problem. My position is people have paid up.

“We have a serious health issue now as more than 2 000 households are using septic tanks while relying on borehole water from a contaminated ground,” he said.

Cde Musikavanhu said an independent audit will help establish how much of money paid for the stands was utilised appropriately.

“We need an audit specifically for the money which people paid for the stands, the audit is meant to clarify the positions of both council and residents. Council’s task is to provide services and as an aspiring MP my duty is to safeguard the interests of residents who have no water, sewer and roads,” said Cde Musikavanhu.

Chiredzi Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Mr Jonathan Muusha said council was supposed to engage private land developers in future to avoid a recurrence of problems similar to what is obtaining at Makondo Extension.