Makokoba Housing Issues Remain Unsolved, 170 Houses Have 3 – 4 Families Sharing A Single Room

Housing issues remains a nightmare in Bulawayo’s oldest suburb as 170 houses reportedly house more than 3 or 4 families Sunday News reports. Overcrowing issues are now raising a health scare as 4 families share a single room in Makokoba.

Calling this arrangement a precolonial ill, Sunday News investigated these living conditions that was a pre-colonial phenomenon for single male workers, not an entire family. In the shared accommodation arrangement for single male workers who worked in the city, 3 or 4 single men would share a single big room with an outside flush toilet.

When Sunday News spoke to some of the residents of Makokoba shared accommodation, here is what they had to say about their accommodation issues:

I was born in this house (room) in 1994, there is no other home I know, my parents have previously tried to get alternative accommodation but this has been in vain as council only offered stands and as you know it is expensive to construct a house nowadays.

We have tried to engage council on our situation but it is rather difficult because whatever deliberations made, they are money determined. As it is I have managed to get myself a small corner within the same house where I am raising my young family

Bulawayo City Council acknowledged the problem and said they were doing all they can to address the situation.

More: Sunday News

 

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