Shortage Of Houses By 2030 Shall Be A Thing Of The Past: Garwe

Government through the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities has promised to eradicate the backlog of 1.2 million housing units national wide.

Speaking at Senate on Wednesday, Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities Daniel Garwe said shortages of houses by 2030 shall be a thing of the past.

Garwe said this after a question raised by Senator Chief Shepherd Makumbe on government’s plan to construct houses in areas that recently acquired town status.

“I would want to thank Hon. Sen. Chief Makumbe for asking a pertinent question.  We have a programme of building houses in the rural areas with a view towards rural district councils and the new towns that have come on board.  First and foremost, what we are doing in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works is to do physical planning to come up with layouts of master plans for houses.

“Zimbabwe has got land that is not infinity. So, as we do our construction, we are now working on these programmes.  I am going to officially launch the programme next week at Mutawatawa Growth Point in UMP.  Thereafter, it would cascade throughout the country to cover areas such as Buhera and Murambinda.  In Murambinda, we are waiting for council to give us land.  We have written to them and they are yet to respond. In other areas such as Gokwe, they have responded, same applies to Plumtree and other several places,” he said.

Garwe also highlighted that government is advocating for cluster houses to save agricultural land therefore reducing chances of importing food.

“We have a backlog of 1.2 million houses nationwide.  We are looking forward to eradicate it by the year 2030, in line with the President’s vision 2030 of being an upper middle class economy.  Shortage of houses by 2030 shall be a thing of the past.  We have steps that we have put in place to reach our goal.

“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development came through the President in line with National Development Strategy 1 to say that we should be constructing 220 000 houses by 2025. We are going to construct these houses in several ways, including the houses that the Chief has mentioned because Government workers that are in rural areas also need to be allocated houses.  That is the programme that we have,” said Garwe.