Zimbabwe: Govt to Allocate 50,000 Residential Stands to War Veterans

War veterans are set to benefit from an initiative which will see the allocation and development of 50,000 residential stands from the government.

The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, the Ministry of the Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Affairs, and the CEO of Prevail Private Limited International, Paul Tungwarara, who is set to develop the land, signed a tripartite agreement on Tuesday.

Local government minister Daniel Garwe said this program will cover all ten provinces in Zimbabwe.

“As we may be aware that section 23 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe has provisions for looking after war veterans in terms of quarter system that 20 percent of the developments taking place in the country in various economic spheres must be set aside for war veterans.

“As the Ministry of local government, we are here to honor that provision in the constitution by today signing a Memorandum of Agreement, between the ministry of local government and public works, the ministry of war veterans affairs and our developer for the construction to completion of developments for stands for war veterans throughout our 10 provinces,” said Garwe.

The Minister of War Veterans, Monica Mavhunga said 50,000 war veterans are set to benefit during the first phase.

“The first phase is to benefit about 50,000 war veterans which is a substantial number and as a ministry responsible for the identification and the final allocation of these stands we are going to do this transparently and we promise everyone in this country that we are not going to be found on the side of those who are corrupt, it mean we are going to do our work transparently,” she said.

Garwe said his ministry will ensure that suitable land is identified and no issues will arise in the future, which will result in demolitions.

Added Garwe, “What we are going to do as the Ministry of local government and public works is to identify suitable land where we will then invite the developer to come and provide the road network, water and sewer reticulation and other services that fall under the first line of services.

“We are the Ministry responsible of ensuring that we follow the law in terms of providing developed pieces of land for housing purposes. We will not witness a situation where the developer will be allocated a wetland as a piece of land for this program, it is not happening and we are the Ministry responsible for ensuring that the urban councils’ act is being respected by anyone including ourselves.

“So there is no way you will find people coming to demolish these houses that the war veterans were building on properly planned survey and governed settlements it will not happen, don’t worry about that.”

By New Zimbabwe.