Bulawayo, declared a town on 1 June 1894, turns 130 years old this year. Interestingly, some of the buildings that stand today are almost as old as the town itself. Take the Bulawayo Club, for instance. It was established as a Gentleman’s Club in 1895.
A popular account on X recently posted on the state of the buildings in Bulawayo and the lack of maintenance. @KingJay has almost 60,000 followers. He posted, I don’t know about city bylaws. Is there a law that compels property owners in @CityofBulawayo and all cities to regularly spruce up their buildings especially those in the CBD? During my recent visit to my favourite city @CityofBulawayo I observed many buildings are in a sorry state! Haven’t the owners heard about maintenance? @DavidColtart please kick butt and force these landlords to paint their buildings,they have become an eyesore! If anyone has more fortos (sic) like these please share!’
There were quite a number of engagements on the post. One account responded, ‘King, those buildings don’t need to be ‘spruced up’. They need to be condemned and demolished’.
A number did answer his question:
‘There are by-laws to enforce the upgrades. Inspections are done to assess conditions of buildings. We used to pay inspectors licences for buildings on long leases. I vividly remember that during our hey days.’, posted one.
‘I’m pretty sure the by-laws are there. Hopefully, Coltart will dig them up from whence they are buried and enforce them’, responded another.
FactCheckZW went looking for an answer to his question: Is there a law that compels property owners in the City of Bulawayo and all cities to regularly spruce up their buildings especially those in the CBD?
And the answer is yes.
There are three laws that the City of Bulawayo can use to compel property owners to spruce up their buildings. These are the Model Building By Laws 1977; Bulawayo ( Building, Roads and Street By-Laws) 1971 and the Urban Councils Act.
The Urban Councils Act which can be used by all urban councils allows councils to spruce up certain areas even where it has not received a request from owners of the land that would be affected to do so. It can then bill the landlord for expenses incurred.
Section 199 of the Act says;
199 Enforcement of conditions of title
- (1) Subject to this section, a council shall have a duty to do all things necessary to ensure that the conditions of the establishment of any township within the council area and the conditions of title to any land in the council area are properly observed and, without derogation from the generality of the foregoing may, for such purposes, inter alia—
- (c) execute any work which under any such condition it is the duty of any person to execute and recover
from that person the expenses incurred by the council in executing such work.
212 of the same Act deals with the numbering of houses and naming of roads. The council may from time to time assign names to roads within the council area and cause the name of any road to be affixed to or painted on any house, building or other structure fronting upon any part of such road. The council may, by notice in writing to the owner or occupier of any house or other building, direct the owner or occupier at his own expense:
- ‘(a) to mark or affix in accordance with any by-law at the main entrance or in some other conspicuous position on such premises the number specified in that notice; or
- (b) to renew the number referred to in paragraph (a) as often as it has become defaced or obliterated;
and that owner or occupier shall, within thirty days after receipt of that notice from the council, mark, affix or re- new any such number as so directed’.
The Urban Councils Act and the Model Building By Laws can be used by any urban council in Zimbabwe to compel building owners to spruce up their buildings.
The City of Bulawayo is on record saying that it does not have the resources needed to demolish dilapidated and derelict houses in its central business district. It also does not have resources to spruce up its own buildings.
Other cities such as Mutare have notified building owners of the requirement to spruce up their buildings.
It can be concluded, therefore, that the less than stellar appearance of city buildings is not a result of lack of by laws.
