The ManicaPost
Cletus Mushanawani and Tendai Gukutikwa
MUTARE’S informal settlements — Federation, Gimboki and Mahalape — continue to be a ticking health time bomb for the residents of these dysfunctional areas as they do not have access to proper toilets, safe water, electricity and other required social amenities.
Some of the settlements have been in existence for almost two decades and have been a thorn in the flesh of the City of Mutare as the population continues to swell with each passing year.
Since 2007, sanity has evaded the housing projects, especially Gimboki, where a litany of regularities were unearthed, including the fact that cooperatives under the housing scheme were mishandling funds paid by beneficiaries, as well as the double allocation of stands.
The management of the housing schemes have also regularly changed hands, thereby creating more confusion even after Government had instituting a probe into the scheme in 2015.
As the drama unfolded back then,with the custodian of the scheme, Mutare Housing Consortium (MHC), turning a blind eye, frustrated beneficiaries moved onsite and built shacks, thereby establishing the illegal settlement.
MHC also entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Mutare City Council to develop the Gimboki South Housing Project with about 5 410 residential stands.
As the bickering continued, a ray of hope filtered for the beleaguered residents in 2021 when Government identified Gimboki Housing Scheme as a priority project under the National Development Strategy (NDS1), an indication of the Second Republic’s commitment to restore sanity at the settlement.
So far, 850 beneficiaries have been identified to get title deeds.
However, the process is taking longer than what the residents had anticipated.
As a result, residents are appealing to Government to speed up the issuing of title deeds as was promised last year.
In an interview, a Gimboki Phase Two resident, Mr Titus Magaya said they are eagerly waiting for the promised title deeds.
“We are still hoping for the best as we were promised by Government that we will receive our title deeds. We had lost all hope before Government assured us.
“Since 2015 when we were allocated the residential stands, we could not develop them as we did not have the right documents to do so.
“We erected illegal structures with the hope that one day we would be classified as the owners of the stands. We are living like squatters as we have no sewer systems, safe drinking water or electricity. Council has not serviced any of the stands.
“We are just waiting, hoping that maybe one day the gods will smile at us,” said Mr Magaya.
Another Gimboki Phase Two resident, Mrs Mavis Munaka said they are grappling with water challenges as they fetch safe water almost 10 kilometres away from their houses.
“We have boreholes in the area, but we do not know how safe that water is as we also use septic tank toilets. We used stones and not cement to build the septic tank toilets so nothing stops the human waste from flowing into the boreholes. “We are also using water from nearby streams as well from the heavily polluted Sakubva River,” she said.
Most parents and guardians staying in Gimboki have resorted to enrolling their school-going children at schools in rural Dora, which is more than 15 kilometres from their homes.
“Nearby schools like Chirovakamwe Primary School are full and cannot accommodate more learners. We were left with no option, but to send our children to schools in Dora where they have to travel long distances. We appeal to the city council to speed up work at the new school they are building in Gimboki,” she said.
In Gimboki, Mutare City Council has constructed a clinic to ease the pressure on the already oversubscribed Dangamvura Polyclinic.
The local authority is also building a primary school which is almost 65 percent complete.
In Federation, residents have been staying in the area for more than 13 years and are also patiently waiting for title deeds.
Unlike in Gimboki where every household has a septic tank toilet, a good number of houses in Federation do not have any toilet.
People use public pit toilets at nearby churches, thereby posing a health risk to everyone in the area.
Mrs Joice Undenge (57) who has been staying in the area for the past 13 years said there has been no progress in developing the residential area.
“How can we have toilets when we do not have water? How will we manage cleaning and flushing them? A few can manage because they have cars and can easily go and fetch water using drums and buckets, but the rest of us cannot afford such luxuries. Besides, look at my house, it is actually dangerous to stay in such a structure, but I have to soldier on because I have nowhere else to go,” she said.
Mrs Undenge said they risk contracting countless waterborne diseases.
Acting Mutare Town Clerk, Mr Blessing Chafesuka, said: “We are pushing hard to ensure that the primary school in Gimboki is completed as soon as possible. Our aim is to ensure that the school will have its first enrolment next term.
“Gimboki and other settlements have been giving us headaches for a long time and we hope that since Government has moved in to bring sanity, a solution will be found.
“These settlements are straining the existing infrastructure and our resources, but as a humanitarian gesture, we end up intervening to provide some of the required social amenities,” said Mr Chafesuka.
Contacted for comment, the Local Government and Public Works Ministry’s communication and advocacy director, Mr Gabriel Masvora said: “As a ministry, we are just a partner on issuing special title deeds while the lead ministry is the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, so they are better placed to give an update on that issue.”
However, repeated efforts to get comment from Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry’s permanent secretary, Ms Virginia Mabhiza, were fruitless as she was not picking calls.
The Gimboki Residents Development chairman, Mr Nomore Brian Muza is optimistic that things will work out.
“The issue of the title deeds is a process and I know Government will deliver on its undertaking. Gimboki was the first settlement to present its case to Government and is being used as a case study, so there is every reason for us to remain optimistic.
“We are waiting for all line ministries involved to diligently execute their duties so that this contentious issue is put to bed. We are quite happy with the progress made so far.
“To show that there is no going back on the Gimboki settlement, Mutare City Council has already constructed a clinic, while it is working on a new primary school to cater for our children,” he said.
Mr Muza said they are also working closely with the Government appointed developer, Ncube Burrow Consulting Engineers, to come up with maps for proper planning and designing of the settlement.
“Yes, some residents may raise the health issues being posed by lack of toilets and clean water supplies, but the septic tanks and soak-ways that were constructed are up to standard and will not result in the leakages of sewer into water sources. Patience is a virtue and I urge all residents to patiently wait as dawn is now near,” he said.
