GOVT : WE WILL BUILD NEW FLATS IN MBARE

Mbare, one of the oldest suburbs of Harare, is set for renewal as the Government is mobilising resources to construct new flats in the area in a move aimed at decongesting the area and improving living conditions.

The planned renewal will also see the old hostels get a facelift, refurbishments and an upgrade of all amenities like the water system and ablution facilities.

The plans were disclosed by National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe on the sidelines of the launch of “Operation Chenesa Harare”, a hygiene blitz initiated on Wednesday to combat a bed bug outbreak plaguing the high-density suburb.

Speaking to the media at the launch, Minister Garwe underscored the pressing need to address the dire living conditions in Mbare and similar settlements.

“Not only in Mbare, but in the majority of our high density settlements, it is overcrowded. And these buildings you are seeing here, these flats or hostels, have seen their better days,” he said.

He further revealed that President Mnangagwa had instructed the Government to “urgently undertake a comprehensive transformation of urban areas across the country through a policy of urban regeneration and urban transformation”. “Mbare will be a place to be, we want to ensure that the targets of Vision 2030 are achieved earlier and this will be seen by the construction of new high-rise flats here in Mbare,” he said.

Outlining the strategy, Minister Garwe explained a two-pronged approach. “Building better backwards talks in terms of refurbishing the existing flats, so that they are habitable, they are modern, they speak to Vision 2030. Building better forward means bringing our developers, our investors, to build new blocks of flats.

“We have got pieces of land here. Build new blocks of flats so that we decongest the existing infrastructure.”

The immediate focus, Minister Garwe said, will be on vertical construction to quickly increase housing capacity.

“So we want to start by building better forward and vertical. That is construction of new blocks of flats as a matter of urgency. So that we remove people from the existing ones into the new ones. As we remove people, we go back and build better the existing ones in terms of refurbishments,” he said.

The urgent housing announcement coincided with the launch of Operation Chenesa Harare Hygiene, a direct response to a significant bed bug infestation, locally referred to as “tsikidzi”, that erupted three weeks prior.

Minister Garwe detailed the multi-ministerial effort to tackle the immediate health crisis.

“We are all aware that three weeks ago, there was an outbreak of bed bugs here in Mbare called tsikidzi. We then sat down with the City of Harare and we created some teams on the 6th of April who came and started the fumigation exercise,” he said.

Acknowledging initial setbacks, Minister Garwe said, “Unfortunately, some of the residents were not around. Others were resisting. They were locking their rooms. So today, on the direction of this exercise, we have now come to fumigate and obliterate any existing and living bugs that could be here.”

He emphasised the high-level government commitment by the presence of representatives from the Ministries of Health, Women’s Affairs and Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services as well as the Mayor of Harare.

“It is a whole of government approach,” he said. Herald

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