EXPEDITE ISSUANCE OF TITLE DEEDS – LUSAMBO

By JOSSY CHAIMA COPPERBELT Provincial Minister Bowman Lusambo has urged ZCCM-IH to expedite the process of issuing title deeds to former employees who bought houses from the organisation.

In a speech read for him by Kitwe District Commissioner Binwell Mpundu at the ZCCMIH offices in Kitwe, Mr Lusambo said some former employees were still waiting to receive their title deeds.

Mr Lusambo said since the sale started, ZCCM-IH had managed to process and issue 29,292 title deeds to the former employees.

He said the decision to dispose houses to former employees as a retrenchment package was to empower them.

"My ministry is anxious to see that all former employees receive their title deeds, government's agenda among others, is the economic empowerment of citizens and certainly house ownership forms part of such employment," he said.

Speaking earlier Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings Chief Executive Officer Pius Kasolo said ZCCMIH had come up with a threeyear programme to complete the remaining transactions.

Dr Kasolo said the newly opened Kitwe office would handle all pending transactions which had taken a long time to complete.

He said the delay in completing the transactions was due to legal disputes regarding certain houses, death of former employees, family disputes and sale of houses to third party and relocation of former employees.

Dr Kasolo said ZCCM-IH had been closed for years due to reorganisation after the privatisation.

He said the reorganisation saw some officers transferred to other stations and some functions outsourced.

“The outsourcing largely affected the processing of the title deeds for the former ZCCM Limited employees, with the reopening it is anticipated that the processing of title feeds will be concluded expeditiously, " he said.