It’s been out for a little while now and while I would enjoy dissecting the report every time, I meet you my friends, let me post this up here as a referral. You can contact me for a copy of the document by skipping to the end of this post and clicking on the WhatsApp icon to head directly into my inbox. Let’s jump into the mayor’s report, shall we?
Financials
Currency volatility has made being mayor of Bulawayo an unsavoury job with a static budget to blame. Revenue generation continues to be a pain point due to payment defaulting. Council financials are not healthy, council debt ballooned to ZWL 31.4 billion as at 30 November 2022. This has affected road rehabilitations and the servicing of communities together with other council service provisions. As a footnote, 90% of water projects done in 2022 were donor funded.
Property Damage due to fire
The period under review recorded property damage worth ZWL 494 276 900 due to fires. Property owners, developers and managers should take care in how they discard lit materials, protect their properties from fires and their reaction time to fires. Emergency services attributed the main causes of fire outbreaks to deliberate arson (15%), careless discarding of lit and previously lit material (75%) and other causes (10%)
To note, emergency services plead with members of the public at large to report fire incidents as soon as possible in order to limit fire damage. It is now the usual that members of the public call emergency services when the fire gets out of control which also limits what emergency services can do about the matter.
Perhaps property managers should take care in inspecting their fire protection systems and educating tenants on adequate fire response. It is often that we take this for granted only to have a mountain of regret to summit later on. Stay frosty.
The Informal Market and Commercial Property
Commercial properties in the CBD continue to suffer from illegal occupation of curbs by vendors selling products often in direct competition with licensed businesses. This reality has rebounded pressure on rentals charged by commercial property managers who in turn have to offload the pressure on council rates and charges.
The informal market continues to spread while violent skirmishes with council officials are on the rise. Council continues to do what it can to enforce by-law and order but the true battle should be made with the less-than-ideal macro-economic conditions raging across the country. Till the true battle is won, council, commercial property managers, and businesses should open dialogue on the best way going forward for all parties.
State of Roads Overview
The council plans to increase the number of roads in condition by 15% (360km) in the next 5 years with a minimum investment of US$15 million per annum required. Currently, the total yearly road maintenance allocation averages US$1.2 million which falls well short of the required yearly investment by 92%. The city thus decided to prioritise essential roads and benefited from ERRP2 and other government interventions. Priority roads are; public transportation routes, arterials, major collector roads, roads leading to institutions and the CBD and finally local streets.
ERRP2 at the time of the report had an outstanding disbursement of ZWL 216 615 373 from a funding allocation of ZWL 338 232 414, these figures are representative of ERRP2 since inception. The government further intervened and took over approximately 88.1 kilometres of roads needing rehabilitation. The government has so far rehabilitated approximately 16.86%(14.86km) of the roads it took over.
The mayor also cited one of the challenges faced in road rehabilitation being that there’s one supplier for asphalt concrete (premix) in the southern region of the country. I expect readers to recognise the aroma of opportunity here. Council expects to add to the count of roads in condition by 1.5% by December 2023.
Servicing of Stands
Aggregate Properties (Pvt) Ltd reached 70% completion in servicing works for Cowdray park High Density Residential Stands (151 stands). Natwecraft Investments was commissioned to service Emganwini High Density Residential Stands (144 stands) on the 20th of May 2022. 15th of July 2022 saw the commissioning of servicing work for Emganwini High Density Residential Stands (267 stands) by the developer TCI International (Pvt) Ltd.
The following projects are ongoing and are yet to be allocated to beneficiaries when servicing is complete;
A total of 3 366 plans were submitted to council with an approval rate of 68% during the period of review. 317 properties were issued with occupational certificates.
Town Planning
The Master Plan (2019-2034) was prepared and adopted by the City Council of Bulawayo on the 6th of October 2022. Final documents and maps were submitted to ministry for approval as of October 2022. Local Development Plan No.08 is currently undergoing review while Local Plan Number 16 became reference on 13 May 2022. The amendment of Local Development Plan No.05 with a special focus on suburbs, Local Subject Plan, started in October 2022 and was not yet complete as when the report was made.
Umvumila Integrated Layout (639 residential stands) and Norwood Tracks phase 2 (1500 residential stands) were submitted by council and approved. Layouts awaiting approval are, Killarney East (787 res-stands), Highmount Phase 2 (274 res-stands) and Norwood Tracks phase 2 (2084 stands). B2 of Bellevue is under preparation, it consists of 509 low density stands and 14 residential flat sites.
The Egodini Mall development
Terracotta Trading (Pvt) Limited, the developer, is currently working on phase 1A of the Egodini Mall which consists of a bus/commuter rank, 1100 trading stalls, public ablution facilities, offices and a workshop, a filling station and storage facilities. Servicing of the site with sewer, water and storm drains was about 90% at the time of report with phase 1A having reached 25% completion.
The developer and council have had quite the spat so far as seen through the media lens and hopefully that is more smoke than fire. The council is pushing for a new general revaluation exercise to be carried out in 2023. The developer cited the pandemic and erratic supply of materials as reasons to why development is snail paced.
Power Supply
During the period under review (2022), cabinet approved the development of a 50-Megawatt solar farm in Ncema to aid power supply to the water pumping station located there. The mayor’s report did not give dates on development times but expects an improvement of water delivery by about 50% and a general reduction in pumping costs.
Conclusion
Working in the current economic climate is not easy, I hold in high respect the individuals who chose to take control and responsibility of the situation in the city. Leadership in these trying times is a rarity to behold. I wish the council all the luck in this world in making the city as efficient and growth inclined as possible.
Only through collaboration, integrity and perseverance will Bulawayo once again rise as a development hotspot. I chuckle a bit as I type this as the thought of having Bulawayo’s own golden triangle flashes across my mind. Thanks, friend, for reading this. Till next time