19 May 2008
editorial
Since the sale of houses under the previous administration's empowerment policy began in the 1990s, the sale and purchase of ZCCM housing units has been a source of controversy.
The controversy has pitted former employees of ZCCM and its subsidiaries against people who were sitting tenants in the mine houses dotted all over the Copperbelt.
At the beginning of the exercise, the catchword was "sitting tenants" and many who o
ccupied these units thought themselves eligible to buy the houses.
But the controversy began when ZCCM began to insist that its employees took precedent over others and offered units to those who were not sitting tenants as long as they were its workers.
This gave birth to a situation where workers were offered to buy houses even in other towns, unfortunately, some of these houses were already occupied by non-ZCCM workers including civil servants, such as teachers and nurses.
For instance, teachers who were working in schools located in mine areas also expected to be offered units, since the thrust of the policy was empowerment of sitting tenants.
There are also cases of ex-ZCCM employees who were allocated houses occupied by workers from subsidiaries like Mpelembe Drilling and Techpro and others.
The result of this was a lot of tension and in some cases actual violence between prospective owners. Apart from that, the situation gave rise to litigation and up to now, some cases still remain undecided in the courts.
At one point, a committee of inquiry was appointed in an attempt to find a solution, unfortunately, the findings of this committee still remain unknown and controversy still rages.
Obviously, it appears there is no easy solution to this problem, but the truth must be found so that the issue is put to rest.
Since the housing empowerment policy was a political decision, perhaps a political solution is needed and the Government must now move in to find an answer or answers.
If nothing is done, the problems will keep resurfacing and anything can happen when people are deeply frustrated.
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