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Yeukai Karengezeka-Herald Correspondent

Cash-strapped Chitungwiza Municipality is being prejudiced of an average of $37 million monthly from properties that are not yet regularised, an official has said.

In an interview, Chitungwiza acting town clerk Mrs Evangelista Machona said the dormitory town had about 40 000 properties that are not yet in the council database.

“From the research we made as Chitungwiza Municipality there are about 40 000 properties sprouted within this town that are not yet regularised. This is one of the major issues affecting council business and we are taking steps towards addressing the issue so that these people can start paying their dues too to council and in a way this will help us to address service delivery issues,” she said.

In addition, Mrs Machona indicated that the local authority’s property stock currently stood at 57 815 of which 54 944 are residential properties (Zengeza 15 128; St Mary’s 10 058; Seke North 16 745; Seke South 13 013) while 1 687 are commercial, 566 are industrial and 618 are Institutional. 

“We have plus or minus 40 000 properties that are not registered in our database and it is our intention to incorporate at least 10000 of such properties into our database by not later than 31 December 2021,” she said.

Addressing residents on the same matter recently on a social media platform organised by Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations Residents Trust (ZNOART), Mrs Machona said regularization process was work in progress.

Residents issued stands through cooperatives claimed that they paid US$520 and were not receiving any feedback on the regularisation programme.

“What was paid was application fee for regularisation. An application does not mean regularisation as it can be accepted or rejected. Those who applied for regularisation should be prepared to get any of the two outcomes.”

She urged residents who are in the habit of building houses and living in undesignated areas to stop to avoid further losses.

“The stands are illegal hence aren’t real. People are therefore advised against investing in an illegality to avoid incurring any further losses. In view of the above, it is advisable that people currently occupying such “stands” should avoid putting any further investment as the law will take its course against such.”