By Yvonne Mangani
Masvingo City Council has announced plans to allocate one-third of residential stands in the Rujeko D extension to municipal workers, a decision officials say was aimed at rewarding long-serving staff and reducing housing insecurity among council employees.
This came out during the recently held full council meeting when Mayor Alec Tabe announced that the workers who were getting the stands had already paid for them.
“There are council workers who have served for a long time. So we need to ensure that those who serve our city have decent and secure housing,” said Tabe.
Ward 9 Councillor Bernard Muchokwa questioned the criteria that was going to be used to select the beneficiaries and whether they were going to pay.
Responding to Muchokwa, Tabe said the workers who were going to benefit had already paid for the stands.
“We should have the history of this scheme first before we argue. There are some people who had paid for these stands, so it should be clear that these are not free, and some of them had died before the scheme existed,” said Tabe.
Ward 10 Councillor Sengerayi Manyanga said those who had paid and died should also get their stands.
“Even those who paid for these stands and died before getting them, their next of kin should come and get those stands which they had paid for. They should benefit from where they were working,” said Manyanga.
