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Members of housing co-operatives in Zimbabwe have been forced to pay for corruption, with some leaders of the schemes amassing wealth after diverting members’ contributions to finance personal businesses.Barely a month passes without some managers of some housing co-operatives appearing in court for abusing members’ contributions.

We demand that Government intervenes with immediate effect to protect hapless Zimbabweans who for a long time have been helplessly watching some unscrupulous land developers embezzling all their contributions.

We want action to be taken now and stop home-seekers from walking away empty-handed after investing their hard-earned money into projects that go bust with the managers going scot-free.

On Wednesday this week we reported that Government will set up an inter-ministerial technical committee to monitor the operations of the housing co-operatives to ensure sound corporate governance following rampant abuse of funds by leaders of the co-operatives.

This is a noble idea, which of course has been long overdue.

However, we should not stop at just monitoring the use of the funds, but should go further and ensure punitive measures are put in place to censure abusers of the members’ contribu- tions.

Co-operatives should tender to Government and councils full and uncontested proof of land ownership before they are registered to avoid cases where members are approached midway by other people also claiming ownership of the same land.

We also demand that the boards of these co-operatives should be composed of people of repute — community or church leaders — to provide guidance to the housing schemes and ensure no shenanigans are practised.

There is a sad trend in Zimbabwe where some people establish housing trusts, collect money from people claiming it will be for land development, yet their motive will be to use the money to buy luxurious houses and cars.

That should end and we suggest that individuals forming housing trusts should first open a trust account where they deposit commitment fees before they start collecting contributions from the people.

The inter-ministerial committees to be formed to supervise the co-operatives should be incorruptible by having men and women of high integrity, otherwise it will be a matter of increasing the number of people siphoning hard-earned money from Zimbabweans.

The inter-ministerial committee should ensure that basic infrastructure such as tarred roads, water and sewer system, among others, is in place.

Due to shortage of accommodation in urban centres in Zimbabwe, people should be allowed to work on their stands as development follows.

After this has been said and done, we want to urge other stakeholders, among them banks, insurance companies, some multinational conglomerates, among them mining firms and some rich individuals to join hands with Government and assist in the provision of low-cost houses.

Housing is a lucrative business in the long term for some institutions and individuals that have a long-term vision, but we advise that home-seekers investigate the authenticity of the schemes before investing their hard-earned cash.