Ndola woman implores governmetnt to probe council over land

COMMENT - Not only should the land be returned to her, but the officials who sold her land without her knowledge should go to jail for fraud.

Ndola woman implores governmetnt to probe council over land
By Kabanda Chulu
Tue 10 Apr. 2012, 13:26 CAT

A NDOLA woman has urged the government to urgently investigate corrupt practices by some officers at Ndola City Council that have grabbed a piece of land from her and illegally allocated it to a Somali national.

In her submissions to the Land Audit Committee, which has been gathering information on illegal sale of land, Harriet Simukoko Zimba, stated that a Somali national, Mohamed Almi Hoor of Atosh Transport, allegedly connived with council officials to grab a piece of land (plot F7/GR2 Mupundu Street) that belongs to her.

"I worked for Zambia Railways for 10 years and when the housing empowerment initiative came into being, I did not benefit from it since I was not a sitting tenant at that time, so the Railways' union pursued the initiative to sell all undeveloped plots to its employees who never benefited from the sale of houses and I was one of those that applied for a plot in Ndola," stated Zimba.

"In July 2002, I was informed that approval to sell plots was made and I received my offer letter dated 2nd August 2002 to buy the plot in question. On 6th August 2002, I paid K4.7 million as full payment and receipt was only issued on 12th December 2003."

She stated that a temporary permit was obtained from the council to allow construction and building plans were submitted and approved.

"I commenced works for the foundation but in April 2002, I received a summons from Shamakamba and Associates, stating that the plot in question was sold to Atoshi Transport in 1997 and was later re-entered in 1998 in Mohamed Almi Hoor, a Somali national," Zimba stated.

"In 2005, as I was waiting for feedback from the Lands Ministry, Mohamed erected a wall fence to show that he has made developments and the information I have got is that some corrupt council officials sold the plot and facilitated issuance of title deeds, yet I am in possession of original title deeds."

She said the matter had dragged on for nine years.

"I have lost time, money and pride to be a Zambian. If what is rightly mine is lost to a foreigner due to a few greedy and corrupt officials, I cannot go to Somalia and be given land, so I request government to look into this matter with urgency," stated Zimba.

Recently, lands minister Wilbur Simuusa warned that corrupt officers involved in illegal land allocation would be handed over to law enforcement agencies once a comprehensive land audit was concluded.

"Once the final report is submitted, punitive action will be taken against perpetrators in accordance with the law. As government, we are concerned about illegal land allocation, and officers found wanting will be prosecuted; so I am appealing to people with information on land corruptly or illegally acquired to assist so that the audit exercise can be accelerated," said Simuusa.