Maravi

Kitwe mayor refuses to apologise over Garnerton land allocation

Kitwe mayor refuses to apologise over Garnerton land allocation
Written by Correspondent
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 8:35:38 PM

KITWE mayor Divo Katete has said the local authority has no apologies to make over its decision to offer 30 hectares of land in Garnerton area for the construction of 300 houses for Chinese nationals.

And Katete has advised Nkana Patriotic Front member of parliament Mwenya Musenge to desist from being "controversial for nothing" and start providing leadership that would earn him respect from the local authority and the electorate.

Reacting to a story that quoted Musenge as having walked out of a full council meeting in protest against the offer of the 30 hectares of land in Garnerton area, Katete said his council did not regret its decision.

In an interview on Sunday, Katete said the Chinese had come to Kitwe to put up an economic zone, which would create employment for the people.

He said it was therefore in order that they were given land to construct their houses.

Katete, who is a Patriotic Front councillor, said other councils like Lusaka and Luanshya were also giving out land for economic zones because they wanted development in their areas.

He said it was sad that some parliamentarians in Kitwe had nothing to do and instead were trying to gain political mileage from anything that was happening in the city.

"I had gone out of the country to South Africa on council business trip, but I was shocked to read in the media that Musenge went and gave an interview to the reporters that he walked out of the full council meeting in protest against the offer of 30 hectares of land to the Chinese who are putting up an economic zone in Chambishi. He wanted to gain political mileage by going to the media to say that he walked out of the full council meeting," he said. "The resolution was done collectively, whether he supported it or not, he is still part of the resolution. In fact, the KCC does not regret and has no apologies to make to anybody over its decision to offer 30 hectares of land in Garnerton for the construction of houses for the 300 Chinese houses because, apart from the economic zone benefiting the Zambians, even the construction works would provide jobs for local contractors and suppliers."

And Katete advised Musenge to desist from waging unnecessary battles with the local authority, but should instead embrace dialogue to earn his respect.

But Musenge said Katete was being arrogant for nothing.

Musenge said he and other councillors had agreed that the 30 hectares given to the Chinese would be revisited after mayoral elections.

"The young man has become so arrogant that he thinks that the land in Kitwe belongs to him. We shall revisit that decision after mayoral elections and he will see that he doesn't own land in Kitwe although he is mayor of the city," said Musenge.

Labels: CHINESE, DIVO KATETE, FDI, KITWE, LAND RIGHTS, NEOLIBERALISM

posted by MrK @ 8:35 PM