From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ZIMBABWE: HOUSING FOR ALL BY THE YEAR 2000 REMAINS ELUSIVE
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 02:07:52 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Asia, eastern
Reference: Third World Dvpmnt
Title: ZIMBABWE: HOUSING FOR ALL BY THE YEAR 2000 REMAINS ELUSIVE


an inter press service feature

by gumisai mutume

harare, nov 4 (ips) -- after five years on the housing waiting
list in harare, zimbabwe's capital, tendai marume was this year
offered ground to build.

a clerk with an insurance firm and a father of two, marume
says he cannot afford to build now because of a sharp rise in
construction costs.

''had the city fathers offered me this stand five years ago
when i applied i would have managed'', says marume.

his dream of owning a house in this sprawling city with an
estimated two million people has been shattered.

should he fail to start building within 18 months, the stand
in the spacious marimba park suburb will be repossesed by the
city.

this prospect lingers heavily on marume who has worked in the
capital for the past 10 years. ''i will be a lodger for the rest
of my life'', says marume.

together with his wife and two children, marume rents a
single room, sharing toilet facilities with two other families.
his tale is not unusual.

about 80,000 people are on the waiting list in zimbabwean
capital, a figure thought to be an underestimate as thousands
others have never bothered to apply.

a stream of job seekers and others running away from drought-
hit rural areas have added pressure in the city's holding
capacity.

the housing shortage is compounded by the city council's
failure to survey stands and set up basic infrastructure for new
owners to start the actual building.

a housing affordability study carried out by the government
last year, based on harare's waiting list, concluded that not
many people on the list could afford the building costs.

only 23 percent of the applicants could afford to build the
standard four-roomed house.

another 48 percent, who earn about 661 zimbabwe dollars a
month (132 dollars) could afford a two-roomed house which costs
about 16,000 zimbabwe dollars (3,200 u.s. dollars). the rest
could only afford a one-roomed house or nothing at all.
(more/ips)


zimbabwe: housing (2)

as a result, the authorities decided to reduce the minimum
number of rooms required when building a standard house to one
room.

but this seemingly remedial measure has not done much to
check the ever-increasing housing backlog. last year alone, the
waiting list shot up by about 20,000 new applicants.

''we have terrible financial constraints, a shortage of
surveyors in the country and the current shortage of equipment
hinders any work in that direction'', says a city public
relations official.

''what the council should do is build houses for low-income
groups on a rent-to-buy scheme'', says marume. ''then perhaps it
would be a better deal for some of us''.

the squalor and stench that greets visitors to mbare hostels,
about two km from the city centre, the cardboard box and plastic
shacks dotted over much of harare's low-income townships are
indicative of the depth of the housing crisis.

not even the city council staff are spared. at a settlement
called pwd (an acronym for public works department) in
highfield, a township about 10 km south of the city centre,
municipal employees live in a cluster of shanty dwellings
reminiscent of derelict sections of south africa's soweto
township.

with blocked drains, a population of about 3,000 share five
toilets. ironically, the pwd is home to the city's garbage
removers.

''we are the forgotten labourers of the council'', says a
visibly worn-out woman pwd resident who asked not to be named.
''but we live, what can we do?''

the city's target to make 10,000 new stands available each
year mooted five years ago trails way off the mark. during the
last financial year only 2,000 stands were serviced.

this year the central government pledged four million u.s.
dollars to the city council -- an amount that would service just
over 8,000 stands for low and middle-income earners.

to achieve the global target of housing for all by the year
2000, zimbabwe needs to build 56,000 houses per year.

recently, the zimbabwe government and the u.s. agency for
international development (usaid) launched a programme worth
67.5 million u.s. dollars to service 45,000 stands for
low-income earners in urban centres throughout the country.
(end/ips/gm/apc/ar/92)