SCORES of Beitbridge civil servants continue to live in squalid conditions because government is taking long to officially hand over a cluster of houses built for its workers four months ago.<\/p>\n
Some of the civil servants blame their housing nightmares on poor distribution and corruption in the allocation of the houses.<\/p>\n
Some of the affected civil servants include nurses deployed to Beitbridge District Hospital at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
The nurses now live in hospital wards, risking contracting and spreading the virus.<\/p>\n
National Housing minister David Garwe last Friday professed ignorance over the existence of vacant government houses at Beitbridge.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive me up to Monday and I will look into the issue. I am not aware there are houses that are vacant. I will give you a full answer on Monday. I will call you then,\u201d Garwe said last week.<\/p>\n
He, however, did not call. The housing project started in 2006 and the last batch of houses was completed four months ago.<\/p>\n
So acute is Beitbridge\u2019s accommodation shortage that it has compromised the privacy of key staff like magistrates, law officers and Zimbabwe Election Commission officials now renting rooms from residents.<\/p>\n
A court official who spoke on condition of anonymity said their accommodation problems at the border town were compounded by lack of a housing policy where some junior staffers were living in houses above their grades.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral people at the district development coordinator\u2019s office live in houses above their grades. Some houses tied to that office are not occupied by civil servants. The problem is at the department of Public Construction which has allowed the rot,\u201d said the official.<\/p>\n
An investigation by Southern Eye revealed that there were clerks living in managerial houses and one of them had two government houses.<\/p>\n
A source at Beitbridge Hospital said clerks, who ordinarily should be locals with own accommodation, occupied houses in the nurses\u2019 home, denying deserving nurses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have non-essential staff occupying accommodation meant for essential staff. This is because some people employed their relatives who are not local people and have no accommodation.<\/p>\n
They then give them hospital accommodation at the expense of nurses,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
New nurses at the hospital are worst affected and at times, share small rooms.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SCORES of Beitbridge civil servants continue to live in squalid conditions because government is taking long to officially hand over a cluster of houses built for its workers four months ago. Some of the civil servants blame their housing nightmares on poor distribution and corruption in the allocation of the houses. Some of the affected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1361,7],"tags":[478],"class_list":{"0":"post-27604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-coronavirus-in-zimbabwe","9":"category-files","10":"tag-beitbridge"},"yoast_head":"\n