Urban renewal plan targets Hwange, Victoria Falls

 Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

GOVERNMENT is working on an urban renewal housing model for Hwange and Victoria Falls in which dilapidated houses would be demolished and replaced with about 30 000 middle income structures at a new world class satellite town that will be attractive to tourists outside Victoria Falls town.

The plan would result in the setting up of Masue town and already, 10 out of 19 financial institutions in the country have signed up to back development of the town.

The model will be replicated along the country’s tourism corridor covering Batoka, Kariba and Kanyemba among others as Government wants social amenities to move in tandem with modern trends.

Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe visited Victoria Falls yesterday and engaged the municipality, Hwange Rural District Council and other stakeholders as he noted with concern the old, dilapidated housing structures in some old suburbs in the two tourism towns of Hwange and Victoria Falls.

Minister Garwe said Government had come up with an urban renewal policy which will see buildings constructed before Independence being demolished or refurbished.

He said where necessary Government would construct multi-purpose flats with several floors providing both accommodation and other services to maximise land use.

A funding model spearheaded by the Zimbabwe Investment Development Authority (Zida) is already in place while financial institutions have also come on board.

The housing projects will help reduce the national housing backlog currently at 1,5 million as well as help lure investors into the country.

“This is a follow-up to his Excellency President Mnangagwa’s visit to Victoria Falls where he launched the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy. As the Ministry of Social Housing and Social Amenities it is our key responsibility to ensure that social housing and social amenities are moving in tandem with the whole tourism development strategy.

“We want to ensure that there is urban renewal to remove all old and dilapidated houses that are in town and replace them with new housing for our civil servants. The transformation of Victoria Falls is what we are focusing on in terms of provision of social housing and amenities that are modern and climate proof, that speak to the future and to Vision 2030. We will be working very closely with the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works and the local authorities in the development of Masue City. It’s a new town which will be housing people from Victoria Falls and Hwange,” said Minister Garwe.

Victoria Falls and Hwange housing backlog is in excess of 15 000 and 10 000 respectively.

The Minister said the new town will have social amenities such as water and sewer, renewable energy, roads and internet services before houses are built, including a university, state-of-the-art medical facility, schools and shopping mall at the Masue Estate measuring more than 1 400 hectares.

“The two local authorities are going to be working very closely with the two ministries to ensure that the master plan is properly done, the houses are built properly and can attract investors from different directions and produce world class middle income housing and social amenities that speak to the future,” said Minister Garwe.

He said Government will fund institutional accommodation through Treasury while financial institutions will finance general housing projects.

The Minister said the Department of Physical Planning had already started making layout plans.

“Out of the 19 financial institutions we have in the country, 10 have already signed up to participate in the development of Victoria Falls, Batoka, Kariba and Kanyemba and the whole tourism corridor. We also have ZIDA spearheading financial mobilisation of investors from all over the world. So in terms of investment we are being guided by Zida but as a Ministry we had already done a lot of work in mobilising financial institutions,” added the Minister.

He said demand for housing is high in the country.

“Waiting list is around two million nationally but effective demand is 1,5 million houses. We can put demand for Hwange and Victoria Falls alone at round 30 000 hence we want to develop Masue City,” added the Minister.

He warned local authorities against engaging in corrupt allocation of land which he said creates land barons who rob citizens.

Source: Urban renewal plan targets Hwange, Victoria Falls (05/09/20)