By JAMES KUNDA –
THE forty-seven houses owned by the defunct Kafue Textiles Zambia Limited will be sold to sitting tenants at a bargained price, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda has announced, living beneficiaries in a frenzy of jubilation in Kafue.
This followed a directive by President Edgar Lungu that the 47 sitting tenants, who are former employees of the defunct firm, be sold the flats at the valuation charge of 1993.
It means that the houses, which ranged between one and three bedrooms, which were, according to the valuation charge of 2004 pegged at between K39,000 and K89,000, would now be sold between K4,000 and K17, 000.
The sitting tenants in April last year, wrote to President Lungu requesting him to look into their plight, thus the news delivered by Mr Chikwanda stirred ‘tears of joy’ in tenants who were addressed at the housing complex in Kafue yesterday.
Mr Chikwanda said the sale of the institutional houses was not a political campaign gimmick , but merely an act of service as Government wanted to improve the livelihood of all Zambians.
“I am a bearer of good news from his Excellency the President, Edgar Lungu, who has hearkened to your cry and ensure that your days of strife ended,” he said.
He said technocrats working on the documentation for the sale of the properties had been tasked to work expeditiously, so that the buyers could be accorded a favourable period in which to settle the purchase costs.
KTZ housing committee vice-chairperson Bessie Mukamba paid tribute to President Lungu for fulfilling the wishes of the sitting tenants.
“We are greatly indebted to our caring and listening President, for this gesture and we cannot find suitable words to thank him. The initial prices offered to us for these housing units were highly prohibitive as none of us has been in gainful employment since 2004 when we separated from KTZ with very little separation benefits,” Ms Mukamba said.
Mr Chikwanda also used the platform to urge the people to condemn violence and ensure that they lived in harmony with one another regardless of political affiliation.
Earlier, when he paid a courtesy call on Kafue acting District Commissioner Ngoni Moyo, Mr Chikwanda said Government was committed to reviving the industrial life of the district.