THE BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) is set to repossess six houses in Makokoba high-density suburb which are being illegally occupied by tenants violating council policy on rented properties.

According to latest council minutes, the local authority tried to engage the occupants on several occasions, to no avail.

BCC director of housing and community services Dictor Khumalo told a full council meeting that the local authority is working on repossessing the houses.

“The six above-mentioned properties were council rented properties and currently the problem is that these properties are occupied by illegal tenants violating council policy on rented properties.

“Several notices and call notes inviting the original tenants to the office to discuss the issues of subletting have not yielded any results.

“It is against this background that the department requests to repossess the properties from original registered owners and further evict the illegal occupants and regularise the allocation in terms of the decongestion policy.”

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BCC chamber secretary Sikhangele Zhou also told the meeting that after notices have been given council must repossess the houses.

“Council is within its rights to evict any person from its premises who does not have legal authority to be in occupation.

“We, therefore, hold no adverse view on the issue of instituting eviction proceedings against the illegal occupants,” he said.

BBC resolved that authority be granted for eviction orders in terms of the law and policy.

“The properties be repossessed from the beneficiaries as detailed in the report and that the properties are allocated in terms of the decongestion policy to deserving beneficiaries after evictions,” the council minutes read.

Last year, the local authority repossessed 179 residential stands in Cowdray Park, Entumbane and Pumula after some of the owners went for up to 22 years without making any meaningful development on the stands acquired in 1998.