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Yeukai Karengezeka  Herald Correspondent
Chitungwiza residents have hailed the municipality’s resolution to allow tenants who have been staying in council rented residential properties since 1970 to become the owners.

Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents Association (CAMERA) director Mr Marvellous Khumalo said the act was long overdue.
“As CAMERA, we welcome this as a good development because we were on the forefront of making noise concerning this issue,” he said.
“We were saying council should act according to the provisions of the constitution.
“This is something that was long overdue and according to the statutory instrument they are using, the provision should apply to those who have stayed in the houses for 25 years and above.”
Mr Khumalo said they were still engaging the local authority on why the time frame was drawn from 1970.
“We are still engaging with the Chitungwiza Municipality in terms of why they made it 49 years instead of 25 years of renting,” he said.
“We held a number of community-based engagements with the affected areas, mostly people from Unit A area and those in St Mary’s.”
In an interview, Chitungwiza Municipality public relations officer Mr Lovemore Meya said those eligible should bring their identity cards for verification.
“We are advising all tenants qualified for this process to visit their respective district offices for clearance,” he said.
“They should bring their national identification cards as proof.
“This will enable us to verify whether the person is the real tenant at provided house numbers.”
Mr Meya said if the parents of the tenants were now deceased, the children should bring the death certificates.
“For dependants like children who might be staying in those houses due to the death of one or both parents, we are encouraging them to bring deaths certificates so that we can be in a position to know if those dependants were registered by the late person,” said Mr Meya.