adminIn Zimbabwe it is pleasing to note that councils’ efforts to provide accommodation have been complemented by central Government, private housing developers and in some cases by individual companies that have built houses for their employees. It is every family’s dream to own a house and in their bid to fulfill this dream, many councils have come up with several housing schemes.
Councils have partnered with building societies and other private developers to provide accommodation for their residents. Many councils before independence, built several houses and flats to rent out to residents. This was a deliberate arrangement by the settler regime meant to provide accommodation to people during their working days only.
Under this arrangement workers were supposed to surrender the houses or flats back to council upon retirement as they were expected to spend the rest of their lives in their communal areas. Many councils still have these houses and flats being rented out to families but many have been sold to sitting tenants. We are therefore pleased to learn that city councils such as Bulawayo are continuing with the programme to sell rented houses and flats to sitting tenants.
According to a story we carried yesterday, the Bulawayo City Council recently resolved to sell more than 3 000 houses in Mabutweni and Iminyela suburbs to sitting tenants. The decision to sell these houses to sitting tenants, in our view, was long overdue. In these two suburbs, families are sharing toilets and bathrooms and one would be excused to conclude that the suburbs are not part of Bulawayo given the squalid conditions families are living under.
The city council has not been able to maintain these communal facilities and as such there is a very high risk of outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid in these suburbs. It is our hope that council will move in and assist families to put up individual toilets and bathrooms before selling the houses. According to information from council, the purchase price of the houses will be determined by the number of years a family has been renting the house and as has been the trend, the longer a family has stayed in the house the less it pays.
Some of the families are said to have rented the houses for more than 30 years which means some of them might not pay anything as they have already fully paid for the houses. It is our hope that the remaining rented houses and flats in other suburbs will also be sold to sitting tenants. Councils should do away with this settler regime arrangement meant to just temporarily accommodate workers during their working days and then kick them out once they retire.
The arrangement of making families share facilities such as toilets and bathrooms is just inhuman because under such arrangements it is difficult if not impossible to maintain high hygienic standards. Selling rented houses to sitting tenants will not only guarantee families decent accommodation but will also provide security to families.
In the past there have been many cases of families fighting over rented accommodation but once the house is sold, it belongs to a family and therefore such disputes will not arise. We want to once again implore all local authorities to do away with rented accommodation and empower residents by selling them the houses.
Online Reporter