By Patience Gondo
BEITBRIDGE residents who have been on a rent to buy scheme of their semi-detached houses will finally get title deeds after the intervention of the Government.
Beneficiaries are those living in a section on the western sides of the Beitbridge normally referred to as “kuma3, 4 or 5 where some have gone up to 30 years on a rent to buy scheme.
In an interview Beitbridge Town Clerk Loud Ramakgapola said his office is preparing to issue title deeds to the residents.
“Yes we agree with the Minister (Nguluvhe) that those old houses need to be given title deeds. Council has done preliminary works needed to enable issuance of tittle deeds. What we are left with is getting a surveyor to survey the stands and make them ready for title,” he said.
“House owners should expect some bit of payment towards survey fees,” said Ramakgapola.
On when this was likely to happen Ramakgapola said this would largely depend on when they were able to get services of a surveyor.
Residents of that section of Dulivhadzimu have been paying monthly rentals for decades in what the local authority conceded had been a rent to buy arrangement.
Some died while in the process of paying for the houses they never owned in the end.
“Our grandmothers have waited long enough it’s time they get their tittle deeds. Without them their legacy dies with them and their children’s future hangs in the balance,” said Godwin Nguluvhe ward 4 resident.
At the burial of Liberation War Hero Rumbidzai Libombo last week Matabeland South Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Albert Nguluvhe asked the Municipality of Beitbridge (MoB) to consider awarding residents title deeds.
Nguluvhe questioned why people in Ward 4 continue to pay rentals for houses they have occupied for years.
“I am appealing to you Town Clerk Ramakgapola on behalf of the ward 4 residents to sit down with the local governance and review the status of tenants who have already paid substantial amounts over many years ,” He said .
Nguluvhe said residents should exercise their constitutional powers and engage local leadership to ensure the matter is addressed from the grassroots level upwards.
The municipality’s latest position now raises expectations that long standing tenants may finally gain legal ownership of the homes they have occupied for generations.