Khumalo, who lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, decided to reach out to his former classmates from Mzinyathini High School, a school located in Esigodini, a rural area near Bulawayo. He wanted to share his challenges and see if they had any advice or solutions. To his surprise, he found out that many of them had the same dream and the same difficulties. They all wanted to have a place to call home in Zimbabwe, where they could enjoy a comfortable and secure life.
That’s when they came up with an idea: why not pool their resources and buy a large piece of land together, where they could build their own gated community? A gated community is a type of residential development that has controlled entrances and a closed perimeter of walls and fences, offering privacy and security to its residents. Khumalo and his friends had seen and experienced the benefits of living in gated communities in countries such as South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom, where they had settled and worked for many years. They wanted to replicate that model in Zimbabwe, where gated communities are still rare and mostly reserved for the elite.
They formed a group of 16 former schoolmates, who all belonged to the same class at Mzinyathini High School, a school whose motto is “Izenzo kunge Mazwi”, meaning actions speak louder than words. They named their group Mzinyathini Gardens, after their alma mater, and started looking for a suitable land to buy. They found one in Kensington, a peri-urban farming area on the outskirts of Bulawayo, and negotiated a deal with the owner.
The project is still in progress, but Khumalo and his friends are optimistic and excited. They have already designed their individual houses, which will be built according to their preferences and budgets. They have also planned to have common facilities and amenities, such as a clubhouse, a swimming pool, a gym, a playground and a garden. They hope to create a friendly and harmonious neighbourhood, where they can reconnect with their roots and culture, and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the countryside.
“I wanted to buy land back home some time ago and to my surprise I discovered the prime land that I wanted in Bulawayo was actually expensive compared to here in South Africa but I asked myself if giving up on my dream to buy land at home was the right thing to do because of the challenges that I had faced and the answer was a no.
“For every challenge there is a solution and that’s when I decided to get in touch with my former classmates at Mzinyathini to share the challenges I was encountering in buying land at home and surprisingly they shared the same experiences.
“The 16 of us, although living in different countries around the world, decided to come together to buy a piece of land where we would build our homes and that’s when the idea of a gated community project came about,” explained Khumalo from his base in Cape Town.
Khumalo lives in a gated community in Cape Town and so do his other former schoolmates in countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom and they all shared the same vision of living comfortable lives when they eventually relocate back home from the diaspora.
Sitting on a huge chunk of land in Kensington – a peri-urban farming area on the outskirts of Bulawayo, is Mzinyathini Gardens – and a team of construction workers are busy at work building a perimeter wall that stretches for a couple of kilometres.
The name Mzinyathini Gardens comes from the educational institution that the pioneers of the gated community all sat in the same class quenching their ever thirsty academic minds thus it was only benefitting that they name the housing project after the school.
Saturday Chronicle took the time to visit the project in the company of Pastor Jedmos Moyo, a local representative of the housing project, and he explained to us in detail the progress on the ground.
“From 16 former classmates of Mzinyathini High School, the project has grown to over 400 members who have bought pieces of land measuring 1 000 square metres each, over this land that is slightly over 65 hectares.
“As you can see, workers are busy erecting a perimeter wall, which we hope will be completed by the end of the year. We are still having challenges with development permits from the Umguza Rural District Council for members to start building their individual homes. We have already engaged the town planner, who has approved the designs for the project.
“What sets us apart from other housing projects is that our members pay monthly instalments for their land, sometimes up to 36 months to pay depending on the payment plan that each member is comfortable with. Of the 400 plus members that are part of the project, three quarters of them are based in the diaspora, these are people who want to invest back at home so that they live comfortable lives when they come back,” said Pastor Moyo. Chronicle
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