Housing Amenities minister Daniel Garwe yesterday said the government had budgeted to build less than 250 houses this year when the government had pledged to build 300 000 annually in the 2018 election campaigns.
Garwe told NewsDay Weekender that the government intends to reach 225 000 houses by the end of 2025. He is quoted as saying:
Our target for houses directly built by the ministry in 2022 is 232 houses. These are the housing projects that will be directly implemented by the ministry and the breakdown is as follows Marondera 64, DZ 48, Binga 37, Senga 64, and Lupane 19.
However, the ministry’s role in housing delivery is facilitating the construction of houses and pushing for the densification model in line with the housing policy by all players including private players, individuals, the banking sector, etc. That is how the Ministry will reach its targeted 225 000 housing units by 2025.
In the 2018 election manifesto, the ruling ZANU PF pledged to construct 1.5 million housing units by 2023, translating to 300 000 houses per year, or 25 000 a month, 6 250 a week or 822 houses a day.
If the plan was successful, over 1.2 million houses would have been constructed to date.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency statistics released on Wednesday, Zimbabwe is facing a housing crisis that has left nearly half of its urban population of almost 5.7 million people living in rented accommodations.
The national housing backlog stands at over two million.
In the 2019 Infrastructure Investment Plan drafted by the Finance and Economic Development ministry, the government announced that it would invest US$264 million in residential housing construction.
Sivio Institute, an independent research body last year said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ZANU PF government had fulfilled only 2% of its 2018 election pledges.
Statistics by the Sivio Institute on the performance of government in 2021 showed that out of the 237 pledges made in various sectors of governance, only five had been fulfilled.