WHEN Nkosikhona Mlilo relocated from his rural home in Esigodini in 1978, as a young man aged 20, he moved in with his uncle in Bulawayo’s oldest suburb, Makokoba.
For him, like many other young people, the goal was to get employment at one of the city’s thriving industries, get paid, send money to his young family back in Esigodini and probably, one day, own a property in the City of Kings.
Moving in with his uncle, meant he had to share one large room with three other families, in the suburb’s infamous shared accommodation quarters.
For Mlilo, back then, this did not matter much because the other three families also had similar circumstances as his uncle and himself – they were young men, all working in the city’s industries, with their families staying in the rural areas.
45 years later, Mlilo is still stuck in the same house, this time with his family.
Home to this senior citizen is a small nine-square-metre corner in a roughly 30-square-metre room. This big room has a subdivision of three other ‘rooms’ all divided with the aid of curtains.
A simple inquiry reveals that in some cases each ‘room’ can accommodate a family of four, in some cases even more, meaning that on average one house can take up to 16 people at one go.
This is the case with Makokoba shared accommodation facility.
Based on the colonial era type of accommodation, most people who lived in the suburb were working-class men, who left their wives back in the rural areas, therefore at the end of the day there was no need for privacy and overcrowding was not much of an issue.
However, 43 years after independence and 110 years since the suburb was constructed, such a phenomenon still exists not only in the city but in the country as a whole.
According to a record on the construction of Makokoba, in 1913, the then mayor of Bulawayo Lieutenant Colonel Walter Baxendale noted the importance of a ‘‘native population’’ in the midst of a white population.
“It is of the utmost importance to have a contented native population in our midst and I am pleased to think that people are beginning to realise this,” said the then-mayor.
The colonial government came up with a number of quickly built houses to accommodate blacks who were used as cheap labour by the colonialists.
This saw the construction of more houses in Makokoba, Iminyela, Mabuthweni and the infamous bachelors’ flats, Vundu.
The shared accommodation facility in Makokoba was adopted in the colonial era as a remedy to the accommodation problems in the city and was mainly meant for men who were working in town while their wives and children remained in the rural areas.
Despite the local authority having significantly reduced the figures of the properties under this scheme, over 700 properties remain under the shared accommodation facility, with the local authority claiming that of this figure just 185 households are still under shared accommodation.
What makes the scenario even worse is that these families are forced to share a single toilet, thereby exposing them to a serious health hazard.
“There were 2283 rented properties in Makokoba, so far 1567 properties have been successfully converted to home ownership, and 716 properties or houses are yet to be converted. In that figure 185 households are still under shared accommodation, being shared by two families per household.
“The council promulgated a decongestion policy whereby shared accommodation properties are relegated to homeownership by one of the parties. This means that one of the sharing partners is moved to a convenient homeownership property, thus leaving the other party to own the remainder,” said BCC corporate communications manager, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu.
The council spokesperson said among the strategies they were implementing to help solve the problem in the suburb was the prioritising of housing stands allocation to those sharing although there were no takers to date.
“We are also ensuring that any opening or any convertible property is used to de-congest, budgeting for building of more social housing in areas such as Emganwini Millennium and planning for the development of flats in the new residential layouts. The major challenge has been funding availability to build new family accommodation.
“Makokoba redevelopment is a long-term strategy meant for the regeneration of the area and which will require a huge capital outlay. The City of Bulawayo is looking at developing the Local Subject Plan which will help guide the development of the area,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Makokoba Member of Parliament, Alderman James Sithole, however, dismissed the council spokesperson’s sentiments saying the truth on the ground was that the local authority had not done much save for policies which they failed to implement at the end of the day.
“I know some time ago there was a resolution in council to the effect that when a family moves out of a property under shared accommodation, that family is not replaced rather the remaining family is allowed to take up the entire space. However, we still have situations where one family leaves the property council is quick to replace them, therefore continuing that congestion.
“Further council says that if any of the families under shared accommodation have first preference in getting housing stands in the city, but that will never work because many of these families are poor and cannot afford to buy a stand to build a house, hence the situation remains with these people living in inhumane conditions,” said Ald Sithole.
Bulawayo United Residents Association (Bura) chairperson Mr Winos Dube said these were issues which the local authority had to prioritise rather than ignoring them for years.
He said Makokoba was a suburb, which remained a firm part of the city’s history hence the local authority should handle it with respect and ensure that such unfortunate scenarios are erased and addressed as a matter of urgency.
“It is surprising that while the city is celebrating its so-called 120-year anniversary, we still have people living under such conditions. These are things that should have been addressed as way back as the 1980s when we got our independence.
“As an association, we have always been questioning the issue of prioritising by our council. Right now they should be developing low-cost housing for such residents and moving them instead of waiting for a health disaster to occur. I believe such problems have to be addressed while they are still in their infancy,” said Mr Dube.
He said there was a need for the responsible authorities to regard and treat all residents in the city as equals.
“We have to remember that these people are also residents who pay their rates, if we treat them differently it then becomes unfair, they also need the services which we all enjoy.
“Besides we have to ask ourselves that can we honestly live in a room with three other families? Where is the privacy, what are we saying about our regard for health as a city and honestly is this the development we are talking about as a city? My advice is that we must come up with policies that show our priority areas,” said the residents’ chairperson.
Mr Mlilo on his part said all they wanted was for the local authority to consider their plight and also provide affordable humane accommodation for them.
“Under normal circumstances, you would expect that the council provides cheap houses or stands gradually to effectively address the problem. Yes, we understand that the council also has other obligations but they should take a tour of these houses and they will see that it is not a pretty sight, it is really a pathetic way of living to say the least,” said Mr Mlilo.
