Will Chapo’s housing promise hold up?

Good afternoon. In Maputo’s Costa do Sol neighbourhood, not far from the coast, an area about the size of nine football pitches has been levelled with red sand, apparently to provide stable foundations in swampy land. It was in this area that President Daniel Chapo yesterday announced the launch of a new housing project which aims to provide 6,000 flats aimed at young Mozambicans. Named “Cidade Jovem” (Young City) or Phoenix after the name of the Hong Kong-based property development company behind it, the $2bn project is intended to address the aspiration many young people have of moving into their own home, when Maputo and other cities are so short of housing that many people resort to building houses themselves. The housing is due to be completed in two and a half years.

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From the Zitamar Live Blog:

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Opposition politician Venâncio Mondlane’s team has today submitted an application to set up a new political party. Dinis Tivane, Mondlane’s adviser, announced that the application for the creation of the National Alliance for a Free and Autonomous Mozambique (Anamalala) had been submitted to the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs. Tivane said he hoped that the ministry would authorise the party within the next 60 days, in line with the legal timeframe, and that he expected it to stick to legal procedures and avoid political interference in doing so. Mondlane ran for president of Mozambique in last year’s elections, initially seeking to do so under the banner of the Democratic Alliance Coalition, until the electoral authorities banned the group from participating in elections. He eventually ran as an independent candidate with the backing of the opposition Podemos party. Mondlane has insisted that he, and not President Daniel Chapo, was the rightful winner of the October 2024 presidential…

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If this project and other ones like it (Chapo promised in his speech that similar housing developments would be launched in other Mozambican provinces) really does address the housing shortage, that will of course be welcome; but it remains to be seen if the development will be completed and if so, who will be able to buy housing. It is an ambitious project, including shops, healthcare and recreational facilities, all of which depend on the housing being filled. The site is immediately next to Maputo’s ring road, which is already congested. No announcement has been made as to whether local roads will be upgraded to deal with the additional demand resulting from 6,000 extra homes.