HARARE - Civil servants, who have repeatedly been duped of their hard-earned money by land developers, are now benefiting from a special housing scheme where they pay $100 per month in order to acquire a residential stand.
The scheme, tailor-made for struggling government workers, has already benefited thousands of civil servants in Gweru, Shurugwi and Zvishavane, with similar projects slated for Harare and Bulawayo.
Smelly Dube, the chief executive officer of River Valley Properties, which is working with the Local Government, Rural and Urban Development ministry to provide the affordable residential stands, told the Daily News that the project is a response to President Robert Mugabe’s call for land developers to avail housing stands to civil servants.
In Gweru alone, 3 000 civil servants have benefited from the scheme and land is currently being cleared to build a new suburb the size of Mkoba.
“Through the ministry of Local Government civil servants can apply for the stands and once approved the recipient of the housing scheme can start building after paying $100,” Dube said.
“We engaged the ministry because we don’t want to abuse people’s funds.”
So far over 5 000 civil servants have benefited from the scheme mostly in the Midlands.
“The programme that we have now is tailored for civil servants who usually cannot afford to buy the stands at once,” Dube said.