By 
Whilst the late former President Robert Mugabe’s daughter Bona Mugabe Chikore Mutsahuni and her husband Simba Chikore Mutsahuni are embroiled in a land scandal accused of buying 20 hectares of land for $2 300 in Harare’s Hellenvale suburb in Borrowdale, they may be forgiven for being too broke to build it.
The deal which prejudiced the City of Harare of millions of dollars was reportedly facilitated by then Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo.It is absurd to buy land worth US$4,5 million to US$7,2 million for 2300 usd. It smirks of corruption at its highest levels and Chombo must be arrested for facilitating such daylight robbery.
The matter came to light during a land audit report compiled by Harare City Council’s special investigations committee chaired by Councillor Warship Dumba that land was sold to Minister Chombo who actually scandalously put it in Bona and Simba’s names without following town planning procedures whereby change of land use was approved on March 28, 2008, after he had already bought the stand on March 25, 2008.
This is coming a few days after it emerged the Bona and Simba are struggling to complete their 25 roomed mansion in Umwisdale following the death of former President Robert Mugabe who was reportedly the project’s financier.
NESTLED on a mountain
in the exclusive Umwinsidale
suburb on the outskirts of Harare’s northeastern periphery,
the mansion is immersed in
scenic surroundings.This is the
mansion which the late former
president Robert Mugabe’s
son-in-law Simba Chikore, a
pilot, and his wife Bona, an accountant, are building.
An investigation by The
TechMag TV into the property
development shows that the
construction of the 25-room
house is estimated to cost at
least US$20 million. It was
originally expected to cost
US$39 million.
The imposing mansion sits
on a 22-hectare tract of land
that cascades down the mountain right to its foot in the
Umwinsi River valley. To put
it into perspective, the house
is built on land that is bigger than the Harare Gardens
which sit on 21 hectares.
The house’s plinth – a builtup area measured at the floor
level of the storey or at the basement – is about 7 800 square
metres. The multi-storey house
has a basement which is 1 200
square metres; ground floor (3
000 square metres); first floor
(3 000 square metres); and a
sundeck which is 600 square
metres.
In the basement are nine
rooms, including an apartment, while the ground floor
has eight rooms and NO WONDER THEY ARE NOW STRUGGLING TO COMPLETE IT WITHOUT HANDOUTS FROM ”DAD” the late former President Mugabe who was using State coffers for lavish.The living
floor has another eight rooms.
The sundeck or upper terrace
for sunning and relaxing offers
a stunning view of the mountains and surrounding areas.
Checks with architects and
quantity surveyors in Harare
showed that given the steep
slopes of the mountain where
the house is built, the cost of
construction is about US$2
500 per square metre. This
means that with a built-up
area of 7 800 square metres,
the house — which is half
complete — will cost US$19.5
million, or roughly US$20
million.
That is before factoring in
expensive finishings, key features like a big swimming and
magnificent landscaping of the
sprawling grounds.
When all these additional features are factored in,
the house will cost well over
US$20 million, according to
conservative estimates. The
initial planned cost was US$39
million, before Mugabe’s death
gave Simba and Bona a financial reality check.
“At the moment the total
cost of the house is expected to
be at least US$20 million. This
is because the owners of the
property are now struggling
to finish the house, which at
the beginning was supposed
to cost US$39 million,” said
a source at the Mugabes’ Blue
Roof family home in Borrowdale, Harare.
“The late former president
was financing the project. Remember he gave Bona and
Simba his historic Mount
Pleasant house during their
wedding, but after that they
asked him to build a house
of their choice and dreams.
Mugabe said he would fund
the project; he paid for everything before he died. Simba
and Bona are now struggling
to complete it. It’s a huge project; they need millions of US
dollars to finish it.”
The source said if Mugabe
was still alive the cost would
escalate to around US$39
million, considering the price
of the vast tracts of land, construction expenses, design
charges, finishings and landscaping, which he would have
been prepared to finance.
“The price would have been
much higher if they still had
money because in an elevated mountain area like that it
might have cost up to US$5
000 per square metre to build,
but that has now been contained at US$2 500 per square
metre,” another source said.
“So when you add land, construction, design and landscaping costs, at a minimum square
metre charge of US$2 500 it
becomes US$20 million, but
if you take a maximalist approach it will be US$39 million. This includes the cost of
paying the whole project team;
the architect (team leader),
structural engineer, civil engineer, mechanical engineer and
electrical engineer. These days
there is also the environmental
engineer. While professional
architects usually charge 7%
of the project cost, the engineers charge 3.5%. These are
the professional rates but, of
course, people always negotiate.
“Besides all that, there will
also be a road which will stretch
for a kilometre inside the property given its magnitude and
that will cost up to US$1.5
million on its own. Building
a kilometre of a proper tarred
road costs between US$1 million and US$1.2 million.”
When Simba wed Bona in
2014, Mugabe gave them his
old historic house at 40 Quorn
Avenue in Mount Pleasant.
That is where Mugabe first
stayed when he became prime
minister in 1980 after leaving
his Highfield home.
From there, Mugabe stayed
at Zimbabwe House and then
went to the Blue Roof, which
was registered in the name of
a company linked to Zanu
PF that donated the stand to
him. Mugabe was also given
– he did not buy – the Mount
Pleasant house.
While it is not clear how
much Mugabe was worth at
the time of his death in September 2019, his account at
CBZ Bank had US$10 million
which was part of his estate.
Mugabe’s family, children
and relatives did not make
much money during his rule,
hence most of them are struggling at the moment.
Mugabe, however, allowed
his family members to grab
farms and his cronies to loot
and accumulate wealth. His
wife Grace is more monied
than the rest of the struggling
family.Mugabe’s family, according to
documents, accumulated 24
farms, not 14 as widely and repeatedly reported.
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