Govt should intervene in illegal sale of ECU assets – Kalindawalo

Govt should intervene in illegal sale of ECU assets – Kalindawalo
Written by Christopher Miti in Chipata
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 3:55:47 PM

SENIOR Chief Kalindawalo of the Nsenga people in Petauke has appealed to the minister of agriculture and co-operatives to intervene in the alleged illegal sale of the Eastern Corporative Union (ECU) assets in the district.

In an interview yesterday, Chief Kalindawalo said he was disturbed to learn that an ECU hammer mill and a large portion of land had been illegally sold in the district.

"I just learnt last week when I went to see the chairman of Petauke

District Corporative Union Mr Banda who confirmed to me that a hammer mill has been sold by some people from Chipata. Now I’m concerned because these assets were partly in my area and Chief Nyamphande's area," Chief Kalindawalo said.

He said the land and the hammermill were believed to have been sold to a Zambian based in Chipata.

"I think the minister of agriculture should intervene and seriously look into this matter. Why did these people sell the assets? I’m very much concerned about this issue," said Chief Kalindawalo.

And well-placed sources at the Eastern Province Agricultural office confirmed that the land in question and the hammermill were sold by former ECU board members in 1997.

"The issue at hand is that we have a new board of directors for ECU. The people who were there have been clinging on to the offices for some time now so the things that are happening are that the former board members have continued to do certain things, the case in point is that they have sold a building in the Show grounds in Chipata, then in Petauke. There is a very big plot belonging to the corporative now part of that plot, there was a very big hammermill machine, so they sold that," the source said.

The sources said the Petauke asset was sold at K14 million but the buyer only paid K7 million.

"Here in Chipata, they sold the building in December last year. These people (ECU former board members) had a credit of K17 million so they said the money we owe you, we give you the place in Show grounds together with the building then that person had to add an extra K10 million," the source said.

The source also said the Task Force on Corruption was currently investigating the sale of ECU assets in the province.