Majaliwa on NHC rent arrears: Give retirees preferential treatment

ELDERLY tenants of National Housing Corporation (NHC) who are facing evacuation over failure to settle rental bills may now heave a sigh of relief following Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa’s intervention.
 
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, he directed the Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Minister, Mr William Lukuvi and his deputy, to meet with the association of tenants of NHC houses in order to sort out the issue.

“This matter should be addressed soberly, in order to pre-empt inconveniences and suffering for Tanzanian retirees who lived in these houses for a long period and can’t build their own houses…after this directive I believe that the ministry will immediately arrange meeting with those tenants,” he explained.

Mr Majaliwa stated that the government was aware that the NHC was guided by the national housing policy on how the houses should be used. He swiftly pointed out, however, that the government was also aware of some of the tenants who had lived in those houses for a long period, and who could buy them even by installments so that they can continue living there.

The premier’s statement was in response to the concern by Ilala lawmaker Mussa Azzan Zungu (CCM) who cautioned over planned evacuation and harassment of the tenants. Mr Zungu said the Housing Policy formulated during the First Phase Government aimed at fostering equality among the citizenswhen it came to the issue of housing.

In 2005, however, the government tabled a Bill in Parliament to neutralise good intention of helping poor citizens to live in cheap NHC houses. The Bill aimed at making the company become commercial, leading to increased rental fees.

Unfortunately, the houses are now occupied mostly by retirees who cannot afford the rent, they are harassed and risk being evacuated while they served this nation for many years. “My request is that government officials should meet those of the association of tenants, so that the latter get relief including making them buy the houses,” he said.

On other hand, Magdalena Sakaya (Kaliua- CUF) raised concern that following recent heavy rains in several parts of the country,some areas were acutely affected, including damage of infrastructures and social services. “

In my constituency in Kaliua District, for instance, at least 500 residents are homeless after their houses collapsed due to floods,” she explained, asking what the plan thegovernment had for supporting the victims since the councils had failed to help them.

In response, Premier Majaliwa said such calamities had occurred in many parts of country due to recent floods. He said the central government had already issued directives to regional and district level leaders where disaster committees had been formed.

He explained that the task of assessing the extent of damage in those areas rested on the committees, before being referred to the central government, for those deemed to warrant the move.

“We, at central government level, would need report from the grassroots level...After being satisfied that district and regional governments do not have the capacity of handling a given problem, my office, through the disaster management department, will figure out how to handle it,” Mr Majaliwa stated.