Thursday, December 18, 2008

‘Dirt’ at Kitwe council irks Nkana MP

‘Dirt’ at Kitwe council irks Nkana MP
Written by Zumani Katasefa in Kitwe
Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:37:33 AM

NKANA Patriotic Front member of parliament Mwenya Musenge has vowed he will not accept to be part of the “dirt” being swept under the carpet in the name of being part of Kitwe council.

In a statement on Tuesday, Musenge also charged that there was a lot of manipulation of councillors at Kitwe City Council.

He was reacting to a statement by Kitwe mayor Divo Katete who advised him to desist from being “controversial for nothing” and instead provide leadership that would earn him respect.

On Monday, Katete said Kitwe City Council had no apologies to make over its decision to offer 30 hectares of land in Garneton for the construction of houses for 300 Chinese nationals.

Katete said whether Musenge liked it or not, he was part of the council that resolved to give 30 hectares of land for construction of the houses.

But Musenge said Kitwe City Council had failed Zambians.

“The land we have in Zambia was God given to Zambians and not to the Chinese. The first people who are supposed to benefit are the locals. I might be petty, I need to be guided, if it is in order for over 2,000 peope to apply to the council for plots and be charged K300,000 non-refundable fee on application and out of all these people, a paltry 200 or 300 people are allocated plots. Surely, is that in order?” he asked.

Musenge also wondered why land could not be gazetted for Zambians if the same could be done for Chinese.

Musenge also said the Keep Zambia Clean campaign seemed to have gone with the wind because even the five vehicles given to each constituency for the programme were now being used to transport council workers.

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posted by MrK @ 9:37 AM

1 Comments:

At 1:39 AM , Blogger Yakima said...

MrK,

Thanks for bringing this story to my attention, it does indeed appear to be quite a radical double-standard between Zambian nationals seeking title to housing plots and what will likely become a largely self contained housing compound for Chinese nationals. Presumably there is some sort of return expected from the decision to offer this land, has that been disclosed? What's in it for Kitwe, given the general lack of revenue generating power at the local level?

 

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