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Leroy Dzenga Features Writer
The housing backlog in Zimbabwe keeps growing, with official figures showing that Zimbabwe has a deficit of around 1,3 million houses. This number keeps growing with each birth that is recorded, shelter is a basic human need. As one of the measures to deal with the housing headache, the Government created a new Ministry of Housing and Social Amenities to reduce the deficit. Our reporter Leroy Dzenga spoke to the man entrusted with the task, Minister, Honourable Daniel Garwe who is also a construction industry expert. Below is the full interview:

LD: Minister, you have been in office for a few months now, I am sure you have an appreciation of the state of affairs on national housing. What is your assessment of the housing situation in the country?
DG: Our ministry is four-months-old, we took office in November 2019. The key mandate of this ministry is to provide sustainable and affordable human settlements that speak to Vision 2030. By human settlements we mean affordable housing and affordable social amenities. By social amenities I mean hospitals, schools, recreational facilities and even shopping centres.

LD: Our backlog is said to be around 1,3 million houses. How did we get to that number?
DG: The general demand for housing is standing at 1,7 million, effective demand is at 1,3 million. Obviously the provision of housing was not matching the growing demand, hence the backlog. This was due to a number of economic factors, including sanctions.

LD: Thank you for clarifying on the numbers, there were a lot of figures being thrown around. You promised 470 000 houses in the next 10 years as part of dealing with the problem. Can you walk us through how you are going to implement this ambitious idea given the slow roll-out of houses in the country?
DG: I could have been quoted out of context. What I said is, Government had a plan to provide 470 000 housing units per year, but we have since revised that number downwards to a more realistic figure. We are now targeting 30 000 houses per year, which will translate to 300 000 in a decade. These houses will fall within the high, medium and low-density spectrum and will be accompanied by the requisite amenities.

LD: Frustrated by the time being on the waiting list takes, some have pursued alternatives in search of homes and engaged private sellers of land. This has seen the emergence of settlements in cities which do not have essential services like water, sewer reticulation and electricity. What is the ministry’s plan for areas like Harare South where people are enduring living conditions of a questionable decency?
DG: Let me start by giving the Government’s position. In a bid to speed up the process of providing houses, Government invited private players in the form of land developers to join Government and local authorities in the provision. Unfortunately, some of these developers were dishonest and morphed into what we now term land barons. These land barons took the land which was supposed to be for housing for all and started selling it, pocketing the proceeds for personal gain. That is the genesis of the crisis of housing. Some people were going to private developers to pay deposits as part of the waiting list for stands or houses, others were going to local authorities and others were coming to Government. The confusion started when people who went to private developers styled as land barons discovered that four, five people would be allocated one stand and all of these people would be fleeced of money.

This is what gave rise to the illegal settlements. However I am happy to advise that Government is working on a programme to regularise illegal settlements, we are not going to destroy people’s homes. Government has taken a conscious decision that we need to provide requisite roads, sewer reticulation and water among any other services we need to provide. It is a programme we are working on right now and we will be rolling out those projects very soon. We are talking to some financiers who are willing to participate in the regularisation of illegal settlements.

LD: The proposition you make is not new. Over the last few years, Government has this promise on different occasions. Now that there is a standalone ministry, people are expectant. Are there timelines on when this regularisation will begin?
DG: Our mandate is to provide affordable housing and attendant social amenities. In 10 years time we must have produced at least 300 000 houses. If I give you figures and times outside that, I would have misled you. However, that period which we have given covers everything. If there is a scheme in Masvingo which takes six months, we will take up the project and finish within the stipulated time, but the ultimate goal is to ensure we build 300 000 houses because that is our mandate.

LD: On regularisation are there timelines?
DG: This is something we are working on right now. It will all depend on how fast we can mobilise the needed resources. I would not give a time as yet, the key is mobilisation of needed resources. In certain instances, some home-seekers will have to pay more to contribute towards the regularisation of their settlement.

LD: Experts are of the opinion that we cannot continue building horizontally, in the 300 000 housing units you are targeting do you have plans to shift from this approach?
DG: We agree with experts, land is a finite resource meaning it will at some point run out. The only way to deal with such predicaments is to build vertically and Government has already started working on such plans. We are saying densification is the way to go right now, instead of producing single storey buildings, we are building walk up flats with four or five floors. We are also aware of the environmental effects of building horizontally, the more you build horizontally, the more you damage the environment. So, going vertical is the only option that we have.

LD: We also have suburbs that are now old. Are there plans to modernise these areas?
DG: The Zimbabwean Government and many other countries are working on a concept called urban renewal. You are aware of the new Harare city that is being built in Mount Hampden, that is part and parcel of urban renewal. We are shifting people and other business services, including Parliament as well as Government to Mount Hampden. This will create an opportunity of refurbishing existing structures here. Areas like Mbare will obviously have to be refurbished where refurbishment is an option, where refurbishment is not an option we have to demolish some structures and build brand new buildings that speak to modernity.

LD: Within the concept of urban renewal, how closely is your ministry working with local authorities?
DG: Local authorities in terms of their mandate report to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, our responsibility is to ensure that housing is provided which speaks to Vision 2030 so we collaborate with the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.

However, in terms of management and administration, all local authorities report to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.

LD: Disillusioned by how difficult getting land in urban areas is, some are moving to rural spaces close to big cities. Within this movement, people are being sold State land. Are we not walking into another crisis on ownership and property rights now that people are building on rural land?
DG: One of our key functions is rural housing. We want to engineer and influence urban to rural migration by providing services and facilities that match those in urban areas. There is nothing wrong with what you are seeing in rural areas surrounding cities and towns. What is critical is to ensure that within those new settlements, basic services must be provided. These are roads, water, electricity and now renewable energy.

LD: On renewable energy, there have been proclamations that the country should go green, but we see new houses and buildings being built without solar provisions. When are we going to see policy directing the mandatory inclination towards renewable energy at household level, especially with new buildings?
DG: There is going to be an inter-ministerial discussion on the need to include renewable energy as a regulatory requirement. The Ministry of Energy and Power Development, the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works and the Ministry of Housing and Social Amenities are going to be having meetings to ensure regulations include renewable energy. It is something that Government is fully aware of, within a reasonable period of time those regulations are going to be put in place through the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, trickling down to local authorities and Rural District Councils.