Catholic Church to start $96m housing project in Harare

The Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe (JPZ) is planning a mixed residential project 25 kilometers northeast of Harare over 5 670 hectares estimated to cost up to $96 million, an official has said.

Expansion of Harare has long been on the cards with city council acquiring 12 farms on the outskirts of the city in 2012, increasing its land area by up to two thirds.

Jesuits are a religious order within the Catholic Church and the project will be in an area of which previously fell under Goromonzi Rural District Council.

JPZ development director Nigel Johnson said at the weekend that the project, called Chishawasha Valley, was expected to commence in the second quarter of the year.

“We are expecting to get approval from the department of physical planning by March then from there we will have to get clearance from the Environmental Management Agency which we do not think will take time because a lot of work on the environmental impact assessment has been done,” he said.

Johnson said development of the project would be done in phases.

“Once we get the approvals work would be done in phases for financial reasons because the project is huge. We are most likely to start on the Mabvuku-end with the 300 square metre stands which have a ready market.”

Jesuits in Zimbabwe own and run schools such as St. Georges College, St. Ignatius and St. Peter’s Kubatana, as well as 18 mission schools in the Harare and Chinhoyi dioceses.- The Source

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