By SANFROSSA MANYINDA
ABOUT 80 sitting tenants at the Workers Compensation Fund house in Kitwe are in K 5.7 million rental arrears.
It was also discovered that some tenants have lived for two years while others lived for three years without paying.
This came to light when Ministry of Labour Permanent Secretary Chanda Kaziya paid a visit to the tenants and ordered them to start pay-ing the arrears.
Mr Kaziya has therefore warned that those that will fail to pay up their balances after an agreement on the payment plan is made will be evicted.
” We will not as government allow such irresponsibility from a few individuals that want their fellow Zambians to suffer. You need to show commitment so that the people that are injured at work places get the money they need so much on time,” he said.
Mr Kaziya wondered how the victims who were the owners of the money in this case would be helped if the tenants chose not to pay rent-als.
He said such kind of behaviour by the tenants would no longer be tolerated as it was contributing to the suffering of the people that were injured.
The PS further promised that renovations and working on the water recirculation system would be done once all the tenants had started clearing off their arrears.
And Mr Kaziya also called for the assessment of the structural integrity of the building which he said was at some point declared to be un-safe.
He said that all the tenants would have no choice but to vacate if it is confirmed that the building was indeed no longer safe for occupation.
Meanwhile, the tenants assured that they would clear the balances they owed to the fund once the payment plans are set.
They however thanked the PS for engaging them in trying to resolve the matter and for understanding the challenges they had in the past months.
” We thank government for understanding the challenges we have been facing with our businesses owing to the covid-19 pandemic,” one of the tenants Mulenga Musonda said.
80 TENANTS ORDERED TO CLEAR K5.7 MILLION ARREARS
