Maravi

Ndola council decided to sell houses before Chiluba went to cheat – Mushili

Ndola council decided to sell houses before Chiluba went to cheat – Mushili
By George Chellah
Fri 12 Feb. 2010, 03:52 CAT

NDOLA Central PF member of parliament Mark Mushili has disclosed that the Ndola City Council had decided to sell the houses to sitting tenants long before Frederick Chiluba went to cheat them.

In an interview on Tuesday, Mushili dismissed Chiluba's attempts to hoodwink tenants of Itawa flats and Chinese complex in Masala that he would talk to President Banda to sell the houses to them.

“As usual he wanted to dribble politically as a political engineer as he calls himself,” Mushili said.

“But I want to inform the public that when Chiluba came he visited the sitting tenants of Itawa flats and sitting tenants of a Chinese complex in Masala during which period he told them that during the time he was a president, he promised them that he was going to offer the houses to them for sell and that he was going to talk to President Rupiah Banda to consider giving the same to the sitting tenants.”

Mushili emphasised that it was not the decision of Chiluba to offer the houses to the sitting tenants.

“This is the matter that has been vigorously discussed in the council that these houses should be given to the sitting tenants because the council hasn't got the capacity to maintain the houses and the flats,” Mushili said.

“And this is why the sitting tenants had resisted to accept increases in rentals because the houses, some of them, are in a dilapidated condition. We accepted that as a council since we cannot maintain the houses we decided that we must ask the Minister of Local Government and Housing to revoke the instrument that was there that stopped us as a council to offer houses for sale.

“So we have been discussing this. Now Chiluba came across this information and went and pre-empted that by coming out in the public that I am going to fulfill the promise, this is not so. It's a decision of a council. Besides, who is Chiluba now?”

He stressed that credit should go to the councillors.

“In this particular case, it is the councillors who have decided that the local government minister revokes the standing instruments so that those houses are offered to sitting tenants,” said Mushili.

“It's a council decision to offer the houses to sitting tenants and not Chiluba. If this materialises, people should not be cheated that it is because of the promises that Chiluba made before he left presidential office."

Labels: CHILUBA, HOUSES, MARK MUSHILI, NDOLA CITY COUNCIL

posted by MrK @ 3:44 PM