Great Dyke Investments (GDI), has revealed its plans which are centred on providing employees with their own homes. This arrangement has been termed as a landscape, with building societies set to fund it.
GDI Chief Operating Officer and Kuvimba Mining House (KMH) technical director Munashe Shava said the strategy behind the GDI housing project is to promote homeownership among employees instead of offering them company accommodation. He said the company hoped that this arrangement will foster a longer-term relationship with the employer. Power and water have also been integrated into the project while logistics, including railway lines, will pass through the development.
“We want to ensure that instead of giving accommodation to employees, we want them to own their own accommodation. They should own the houses. The funding arrangements have also been done. It’s called a landscape. The financial institutions, the building societies, are actually going to fund it. …because it also has to do with its proximity to the capital, very close to Norton so the new development which is going to be in Norton is part of Norton.
“So automatically, employees will actually own houses. Not only that, but it will also encourage them to have a longer view of the relationship with the company,” Shava said.
According to GDI, all the licenses for the project are in place, and everything is set to begin soon. However, due to the pullout of one of its JV partners due to the Russian and Ukraine issues, the project’s recommencement will have a new strategy. The company stated that it would be back on the ground soon, and all preparations have been made.
“So everything is there. As we speak, I think you are all aware, the Russian and Ukraine issue brought in a new dimension to the project because the other JV partner was Russians and obviously, what was happening led to the pull-out of the project. So a new strategy has been put in place to recommence the project and that’s what we are waiting for. Very soon we should be back on the ground. Everything is in place,” Shava concluded.