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(LUSAKATIMES) Lusaka City Council suspended over plots

Lusaka City Council suspended over plots
Saturday, January 22, 2011, 8:54

THE Lusaka City Council (LCC) has been suspended with immediate effect. The council will remain suspended for 90 days and Government has appointed Solomon Finandi Sakala, the Copperbelt Provincial Local Government officer as the administrator.

Minister of Local Government and Housing, Brian Chituwo announced the suspension of the council yesterday following reports that the local authority has been involved in some land allocation scams.

Dr Chituwo said at a media briefing that Government has decided to suspend LCC to pave way for investigations into the alleged illegal land allocation.

The Lusaka City Council has been accused of illegally allocating land to itself without following the law governing the allocation of land.

Out of 102 plots, the councillors got 45 plots, 10 plots were given to the Mayor while the deputy Mayor got five plots and members of the public were only allocated 11 plots.

“In order to understand the matter, my office requested for a written report from the local authority. The report forwarded to my office by the council does not give much detail on who allocated the plots and how the beneficiaries were picked,” Dr Chituwo said.

Dr Chituwo said he would soon appoint a committee to audit the allocation of land in Lilayi.

He said the piece of land in Lilayi that is alleged to have been shared among the Mayor, his deputy and councillors is titled and should have been advertised. Dr Chituwo said the council did not even bother to seek authority from the ministry as stipulated by law.

“Therefore, it has become necessary for the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to suspend the Lusaka City Council in accordance with the Local Government Act, Cap 281 of the laws of Zambia to pave way for investigations into the Lilayi land allocation,” he said.

Dr Chituwo said the council should have realised the importance of seeking authority from his office to allocate plots on the piece of land in question. He said his office should have authorised the council to deal with the piece of land in terms of transfer, disposal or even in the mode of exchange or swapping.

Dr Chituwo said it is the understanding of the Ministry of Local Government and Housing that any proposed allocation of land should be done through the Plans, Works and Development Committee.

“In order to understand the matter, my office requested for a written report from the local authority. The report forwarded to my office by the council does not give much detail on who allocated the plots and how the beneficiaries were picked,” Dr Chituwo said.

He said the council failed to explicitly state how it decided to allocate councilors one plot each.

The Minister wondered whether it has been the trend that the Mayor and his councillors should have a lion’s share of plots each time there was a piece of land earmarked for allocation.

“I as Minister of Local Government and Housing hereby announce the suspension of the council for 90 days through the statutory instrument number 11 of 2011and appoint Mr Solomon Finandi Sakala, who is Copperbelt Provincial Local Government Officer as administrator,” Dr Chituwo said.

“As a council, we presented our report and we maintain that whatever was done, we followed the law. The general public will judge us after the investigations,” Mr Chisenga said.

But Lusaka Mayor Daniel Chisenga has maintained that the allocation of land in Lilayi was done in accordance with the law.

Mr Chisenga said the public will have to judge the council after all the investigations have been done and the report on the investigations released.

He said the council welcomes the investigations as it has encountered investigations in the past and all officers found wanting had been dealt with according to the law.

“As a council, we presented our report and we maintain that whatever was done, we followed the law. The general public will judge us after the investigations,” Mr Chisenga said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Labels: BRIAN CHITUWO, CORRUPTION, LAND, LAND RIGHTS, LUSAKA

posted by MrK @ 2:56 PM