The City of Victoria Falls on Friday announced allocation of housing stands to 15 people with disabilities as part of the local authority’s deliberate policy of inclusivity and integration.
The stands were officially announced at the Zimbabwe National Disability Expo 2025 official opening ceremony where President Mnangagwa was represented by Vice President Kembo Mohadi as guest.
The housing stands donation was among other donations made by the Office of the President through various Presidential Schemes.
The President handed over 20 tonnes of rice, 50 goats for the Presidential Goat Scheme, 50 pigs for the Presidential Piggery Project and 10 incubators for the Presidential Roadrunners Contract farming, Provincial Production Hubs and several assistive devices which will be distributed to all the ten provinces in the country.
Speaking after the event, Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube said the City is guided by the country’s Constitution, National Housing Police and the local authority’s policies on Housing Policy, Recruitment and Selection, as well as Gender Policy in empowering people with disabilities.
He said the Council is committed to uplifting standards of living for people with disabilities who have been empowered through job creation, housing stands and informal trade spaces among other interventions.
“We are alive to the provisions of the Constitution which states that disabled people are equal citizens. Being equal citizens means that they should be given equal opportunities, so we encouraged our disabled fraternity to participate and register for any upcoming residential schemes.
“The ones that we selected qualified in the previous scheme and they were allocated. We are doing this out of realisation that our disabled people are in most circumstances disadvantaged,” said Mr Dube.
The beneficiaries were selected through the BE100 Housing Project whose servicing is underway.
Mr Dube said the terms and conditions of the offer letters that were given to the disabled are somehow more lenient than beneficiaries from the mainstream society.
“So, we did this in recognition of the fact that in the National Housing Policy and in our own Housing Policy there is a call for a quota for our disabled people and then as a council we wanted to lead in this agenda of inclusivity.
“Even in our employment policy, it is stated that there should be a certain quota for people living with disability. As we speak in a total establishment of about 250 about 10 of our workers are with disability. We integrate them fully into our workforce so that they don’t feel discriminated,” added Mr Dube.
He stressed the need by the Council to inculcate into other citizens and other industries in Victoria Falls, a culture of prioritising people with disabilities.
The City strives to be a leader in the integration and inclusivity agenda which is being pushed by the Second Republic.
One of the people with disability who are employed by the City is Ms Sithabile Ncube, a librarian who started as a messenger in the local authority 30 years ago.
She is employed under the Housing and Community Services Department.
“I started working at the Rest Camp before being moved to Housing and now I work in the library. I have worked in Council for 30 years and the Council has been supportive.
“We are grateful to the Council for job opportunities. I started as a messenger and would deliver on all duties. Now I am a librarian making sure we issue books and assist the community especially children that want books. I am grateful because I also have a house of my own after being allocated a stand by the Council,” she said.
Mr Benjamin Ndlovu, has been working a street cleaner in the Public Health section for 18 years.
He is grateful that the Council gave him a job which is conducive for his spinal code disability and is also one of those that have also benefitted from housing stands allocation.
“I am grateful to the Council for all that has been done to me and I am excited to have attended the National Disability Expo and interacting with other people with disabilities,” said the father of one.
Last modified: July 10, 2025
