Hundreds of civil servants in Bulawayo are crying foul after allegedly being swindled out of their hard-earned savings invested in a long-promised residential stands project that has yet to materialise more than a decade later.
More than 400 public sector workers say they have been paying monthly instalments since 2014 to Rivervalley Properties (Mahlaba Housing Scheme) in Bulawayo, in anticipation of receiving residential stands.
The scheme, fronted by Simelilanga Dube, promised beneficiaries 300-square-metre stands at Lot 27A in Lower Rangemore.
According to the agreement, contributors were told they could begin building within months of starting payments, while continuing to service the balance.
However, although payments commenced in earnest and were initially made in good faith, beneficiaries say they were later left empty-handed, with no stands allocated as outlined in their contracts.
More than ten years on, not a single contributor has taken ownership of a stand, despite continued financial contributions.
Some of the affected civil servants have since retired or passed away without ever seeing the promised development take shape on the land said to have been secured for the project.
The aggrieved members have since lodged a formal petition in an effort to compel Dube to deliver on the contractual obligations.
They further allege that there has been an attempt to retrospectively alter the terms of the agreements, shifting the contract timeline to 2018, a period when Zimbabwe had suspended the multicurrency system, in what they claim is an effort to avoid settling obligations in United States dollars.
In 2025, the scheme’s chairperson, Tungamirai Mavhunda, told the media that members had consistently fulfilled their payment obligations, expressing frustration over what he described as the developer’s failure to honour its side of the bargain.
He also alleged that engagements with Dube had at times been inconclusive, with claims of confusion over individual allocations.
The Mahlaba Housing Scheme controversy comes at a time when the chairperson of the Land Tenure Implementation Committee, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, who is a ZANU-PF Central Committee member, has announced a discounted land purchase incentive framework for both serving and retired civil servants, aimed at cushioning them after years of pension erosion during Zimbabwe’s prolonged hyperinflation period.
However, amid these initiatives, concerns are growing among civil servants who fear being drawn into similar arrangements that may not deliver on promises, yet require significant upfront payments.
Some have also raised apprehension over the proliferation of such housing schemes, particularly where they are perceived to be linked to politically connected people, with fears that accountability mechanisms may be weak and enforcement uneven.
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