Zimbabwe civil servants are set to benefit after the government extended the civil servants’ residential housing scheme to include all its workers, including even those who are nonmembers of the staff associations that brokered the project.
At its start, the project targeted 100 000 civil servants to get residential stands as part of Government’s efforts to give its workers non-monetary incentives.
This number is however expected to go up following the decision by Government to take on board all civil servants.
Civil servants in the Apex Council submitted their names to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, while those outside the staff associations submitted their names through the Civil Service Commission.
Mrs Pretty Sunguro, the Civil Service Commission secretary directed all heads of ministries to come up with lists of civil servants interested in the project.
“It was however, observed that some civil servants are not members of the respective staff associations and would therefore not be included on the list.
In view of the above, the commission is requesting heads of ministries to submit details of members who wish to be included in the scheme with the following information; name and EC number, designation, department, age, residential area preference, city/town and contact details, including phone number.”
Ministry heads have already communicated the information to various provinces.
After submission of their names, Government and civil servants will be expected to work on the implementation matrix of the scheme.
The lists will help the government in allocating land to various towns and cities.
Delivery of housing is one of the key agendas of Zim-Asset and Government plans to offer 300 000 housing units to the people by 2018.
Mrs Cecilia Alexander the chairperson of Apex Council said they are meeting to consolidate all the lists before they are officially submitted
“The list of names will be accompanied by a summary of the total number of intended beneficiaries submitted in each preferred area and further breakdown of the required density that is; high, medium or low density. The response is overwhelming, a clear sign that every worker is in need of housing stands.”
The housing program will help in cushioning civil servants who have seen many schemes set up in their names but ended up benefiting outsiders and political bigwigs.This has led to many civil servants being coned by land barons.
