The National Housing and Social Amenities secretary Joy Pedzisayi Makumbe says the ministry is facing several challenges that include inadequate land, personnel and funding which are hampering construction projects.
Makumbe made the remarks while appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government to speak on the challenges the ministry was facing to complete some of its projects. Makumbe said:
We have two engineers, one builder and one painter. We need technical staff as we want to build our own construction unit. You find out that with contractors everything has to go through the tendering process.
We (however) have casual employees being employed by our human resources department. We have two sites in Lupane where they are working. The houses have been left uncompleted for the past 15 years.
Buhera South Member of Parliament Joseph Chinotimba then asked Makumbe to explain why the ministry was failing to employ its own construction personnel instead of depending on constructors. Makumbe responded:
The ministry is working on creating land banks to speed up its housing projects. That process involves getting land from the Lands ministry. It is bureaucratic as it also has to pass through the Local Government ministry. If we want to construct a block of flats, that issue has to go through the Lands ministry, then Local Government and finally to the National Housing ministry.
There are thousands of people who are seeking land for residential and commercial purposes. Due to the scarcity of land, hundreds have fallen prey to bogus land barons losing their hard-earned money in the process.