THE government has pledged more land to the Urban Development Corporation (UDCORP) after the parastatal completed a successful, profitable transformation strategy.
During a tour of Knockmallock Mixed Housing Project in Chegutu last FrIday, stakeholders had the opportunity to ask questions and get full details of the project, which will benefit both the low-income earners, middle class and the bourgeoisie.
The project, under a developmental initiative partnering Chegutu Rural District Council, UDCORP's Knockmallock Mixed Housing Project is a self-contained project with residential stands, commercial stands, a light industrial park, and institutional stands such as schools, churches, cemetery and others.
Local Government Minister, Daniel Garwe, in a speech read on his behalf by the Chief Director of Spatial Planning and Development in the ministry, Shingirayi Mushamba said UDCORP is "strategically positioned to play a leading role" in the government's "Call to Action - No Compromise to Service Delivery."
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Mushamba confirmed that the ministry would allocate more land to UDCORP to empower its national development role.
UDCORP Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Joy Shumbamhini, addressing stakeholders, said the "transformation journey began on April 7, 2023, when the UDCORP board approved a very ambitious transformation strategy to turn around its fortunes.
"UDCORP's brand had gone bad and was associated with bad things, but we have invited you today to witness a new UDCORP.
"Today I stand before you to reflect a profound strategic journey of transformation, resilience, and tangible progress, because we are talking in the office where we are doing this project, and we wanted you to come and see for yourself the work that is being done in the creation of a new setup," Shumbamhini said.
In 2023, UDCORP launched a transformation journey, naming it 'Transformation Restore UDCORP Prosperity'.
"Our first part of the transformation journey was to put our house in order, and amongst our 10 objectives was to turn around UDCORP from a loss-making to a profit-making organisation.
"The corporation was making losses for years, and it was not sustainable. The second objective was to mobilise resources from the private sector, local and regional financial institutions. The third objective is to unlock the UDCORP land bank and resuscitate project works," Shumbamhini added.
He said UDCORP was currently working on creating effective and efficient internal governance systems, policies, processes, procedures in administration systems and also in the process of reviewing the UDCORP business model and implementation of the new business model.
The parastatal managed to clear its backlog in terms of annual general meetings.The corporation had gone for a number of years without presenting annual audited financial statements to stakeholders.
"We have cleared the backlog in audited financial statements and annual general meetings dating as far back as 2020. And the corporation is now up to date. Our corporate governance compliance is sold to 96%.
The parastatal also managed to reduce the project costs by at least USD$8 million from US$40 million to USD$22 million.
UDCORP has another project in Manresa, a block of high-rise flats, where four blocks were constructed and now transferred to the National Housing ministry for completion at the allocation to civil servants.
Unfortunately, the Manresa project stalled as UDCORP's capital was wiped out due to currency changes and inflation.
"We successfully resuscitated the Knockmallock Housing Project in July 2024. This was not a simple task. It required strategic focus and diligence.
"Today, we celebrate the successful resuscitation of a flexion housing project, the Knockmallock Mixed Housing Project. This project falls under the Chegutu Rural District Council. And this is clear testimony that real artistic councils can also embrace rapid modernisation."
According to Shumbamhini, phase one of the project is almost 90% complete, with 608 high-density residential stands.
"Phase one, extension, because we have realized that there is a huge demand for high-density stands, so we have to create additional extension for high-density, which is going to yield 1,263 high-density residential stands.
"Phase two is medium-density stands, which are going to yield 881 residential stands. Phase three is your low-density stands, that area of the mountain, the mountainous area, low-density stands with a beautiful scenery, and we are going to have about 398 low-density stands," said the CEO.
The project is self-funding with the resources that are being used to implement this project coming from individuals, corporates, and institutional investors such as pension funds
"We are calling upon companies, pension funds, and institutional investors to approach UDCORP for public-private partnerships or commercial joint ventures in housing and infrastructure development.
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"We call upon rural district councils to emulate Chegutu RDC in undertaking such game-changing housing projects," said Shumbamhini.
Fully paid-up clients can immediately qualify to start applying for title deeds, giving them security of tenure.
"We have already started the process of all fully paid-up members with check to load disposal and we appreciate check to load disposal for the work that they're doing to assist our fully paid-up members."
In terms of progress on the ground, "We can confirm that we have covered significant ground in doing sewer reticulation, water reticulation, and stormwater drains. The road servicing will be done soon after we finish our sewer and our water, and we want to make sure that we complete phase one by December 31, 2025.
"For sewer treatment, the corporation has adopted a biodigester system. The tender for biodigesters has just been concluded, and the contractor is expected to commence project works in December 2025. And going forward, we are strengthening our research and development function in order for the corporation to become a pioneer in innovation and modern technologies in the built environment."
UDCORP's focus is on social impact, making sure its pricing will be very reasonable and far lower than the private sector."
