Bulawayo to repossess more than 30 industrial stands

The Bulawayo City Council is to repossess more than 30 industrial stands most of which were allocated to beneficiaries more than five years ago because they have failed to utilise the stands.

It has also given more than 70 other potential investors a year to develop their stands or risk losing them.

The council reached the decision after a survey had indicated that most of the 113 industrial stands that had been allocated to developers by the council were still undeveloped. Only 15 of these stands were allocated in 2003.

Some of the stands were sold for as little as $1 600 way back in 1990 but the developers now owed the council more than $4 million.

The council decided to cancel all agreements of sale with developers who had not developed the stands including those who had fully paid for them.

It gave those developers who had partly developed their stands, and those who purchased stands after 2000, a year to complete the jobs.

The council has approved building plans valued at more than $200 billion over the past 14 months but none of these were commercial or industrial.

There has also been a drought of government projects during the same period.

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