Perpetua Murungweni
Masvingo City Council has appointed Simbarashe Mandishona as substantive Director of Housing and Social Services effective 01 August 2023, having occupied the same post on acting capacity.
Mandishona Joined Masvingo City Council as Deputy Director of Housing and Social Services in April 2011 up until May 2022. He was then appointed acting Director from June 2022 to July 2023 after the then director Livison Nzvura retired.
Having worked in various local authorities spearheading development, Mandishona said he has vast experience in town planning, housing and estate management and during his time as the Deputy Director of Housing and Social Services he took a leading role in a number of projects.
“I took a leading role in the formulation of polices at Masvingo City Council such as the education policy of the council and a number of councils have been coming for leaning purposes from us,”.
“I also took a leading role in the re-greening to beautify the city by planting of trees, lawns and flowers in parks like Kernen Park and a number of housing projects including the construction of Rujeko Secondary School,”
“I brought sanity to public entities where there were challenges like at Alpha Cottages Children’s Home, there were challenges of governance. I managed to appoint a new committee. I did the same at Charles Austin Theatre where I brought in a new committee and things are beginning to take shape now,” said Mandishona.
Mandishona holds Bachelor of Science Honors degree in Rural and Urban Planning with University of Zimbabwe, Master of Science Degree in Strategic Management with Chinhoyi University of Technology and a certificate in Personnel Training and Labour and another certificate in Labour Relations.
He says he has 28 years working experience in the housing services department which he acquired from a number of organizations having started as a Planning Officer for DDF which is now the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) a department of rural development in Gweru Midlands Province from July 1995 to June 1998.
He later joined Runde Rural District Council as Projects and Planning Officer from July 1998 upto December 2000 when he became the acting Chief Executive Officer for the same local authority, a position he held from January 2001 to December 2003.
In 2004 then joined Marondera Municipality where he served as the Deputy Director of Housing and Community Services between January 2004 and March 2011.
Mandishona said currently he is working on engaging private entities so that the housing projects will be completed.
“In terms of housing projects we are currently spearheading the engagement of National Building Society (NDS) in servicing Rujeko D, and also the engagement of Infrastructure Banking of Zimbabwe (IBZ) to service Morning side medium density suburb and Mangwandi surbub (Rhodene extension),” said Mandishona.
Mandishona said as the new Housing Director, his vision was in line with vision 2030 National Development Strategy 1 (NDS) on housing delivery.
“My vision as the new Housing Director is that the projects that I am going to work on contribute to NDS1. I am working towards improving social services by establishing more schools. The are no adequate schools especially in Rujeko and the ones available are over whelmed. This also applies in Runyararo Area where Francis Aphiri is overwhelmed and the area needs an additional secondary school.
In terms of social housing he said he will spearhead the disposal of houses so that the vulnerable and disadvantaged people have access to housing services.
“The only way to empower people who live in council houses or hostels is to sell these houses to them because most of them have been staying in the houses for over 20 to 30 years. Government policy allows that if people stay in house for long the council can dispose the houses to them,”
“So I am going to make sure that these houses are disposed to the sitting tenants and give them section titles so that they will be able to upgrade their hostels.
“I also intend to focus on upgrading Mucheke Stadium, because with the current state of Mucheke stadium Masvingo will not be able to host premier league soccer games. As council we are going to partner private companies to make it a reality,” Mandishona said.
