Sata explains how Kabimba bought council house

Sata explains how Kabimba bought council house
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sun 11 Apr. 2010, 04:01 CAT

PATRIOTIC Front (PF) president Michael Sata has dismissed home affairs minister Lameck Mangani’s claim that Wynter Kabimba dubiously bought a big government house at a low price when he worked for the Lusaka City Council.

Explaining the circumstance under which PF secretary general Kabimba bought a government house when he worked for the Lusaka City Council years ago, Sata who was the governor of Lusaka at the time, said Mangani was ignorant about council houses that were sold to the local authority’s senior staff including Kabimba.

“He Mangani only talks things without knowing. I was a governor of Lusaka. At that time there was no town clerk. There was district executive secretary and the district executive secretary was Nelson Mapala. Wynter Kabimba had just been promoted by the council to be director legal. The council decided to empower its chief officers because councils were losing a lot of manpower so we decided to sell houses to all chief officers which included Wynter Kabimba,” Sata explained.

“So when he says he is going to investigate Wynter Kabimba, let him go ahead.”

He said even though the amount Kabimba and his colleagues paid to the council seem to be insignificant now, it was a lot of money at the time.

“Kaunda’s currency was strong. The money which the council received at that time was the correct value of those properties which were sold to all chief officers. So Mangani is talking about this MMD devalued currency because Kaunda’s money was about K1,300 to a US dollar and once somebody paid K500,000 that was a lot of money. They did not pay cash; the council gave all chief officers loans,” Sata said.

“Let him Mangani investigate because a village dog scares people and runs away; it doesn’t bite. That is Mangani. He barks while running backwards. He barks at me, then he runs away and barks at Edith Nawakwi, then he runs away from Edith, now he goes to Wynter. We don’t know who is next.”

Sata said Lusaka Province MMD chairperson William Banda, who was his deputy governor at the time, was among the people that benefited from the sale of council houses.

“William Banda was an employee of UNIP but because he was regarded as my deputy governor and under normal circumstance he did not qualify to get the benefits which the chief officers had but I felt sorry for the young man. He was driving a council vehicle, he was in council offices, he was doing everything chief officers were doing so I prevailed on the council that he should also benefit by buying this property because he was a sitting tenant,” Sata said.

“That property helped him a great deal when he was in exile in Malawi. He was the first beneficiary when I decided to sell houses to sitting tenants. There is a house on Tito road in Rhodes Park, where they have put a company called Nsolo, that was the house William Banda bought.”

On Monday, Mangani threatened to investigate Kabimba’s alleged abuse of power when he purchased the house from the government at a low price.

“He Kabimba is clinging to Mr Sata because he fears that Mr Sata might spill the beans on his activities when he served as town clerk, on the purchase of a very big house which was built after independence in Lusaka and he bought it at less than K500,000. Not even a K1 million! I will ask the minister of local government to constitute a team to investigate this level of abuse of power when he was town clerk and whether it’s possible that we can confiscate the house because this is tantamount to stealing,” said Mangani.

“How does somebody buy a big house in a good residential area at less than half a million kwacha and it was built after independence? That is why he is clinging to Mr Sata.”

Magani’s remarks came in the wake of Kabimba’s statement in which he dared President Rupiah Banda’s government to take Frederick Chiluba, the prime suspect in the Carlington maize scandal back to court.

Kabimba was prompted to make that statement after Mangani announced that the Attorney General would advise the government on how to proceed with the Carlington maize scandal in which opposition FDD president Edith Nawakwi was implicated.

Kabimba said Mangani was acting like a Rottweiler that had been unleashed by its master to pursue his political enemies.