PATRIOTIC Front (PF) secretary general Wynter Kabimba has been named as being among those that benefited from plots at the piece of land where the PF-dominated Lusaka City Council (LCC) has shared plots without advertising them to the public in breach of the 1985 Land Act.
The PF has claimed that the plots were allocated to councillors and members of Parliament but Mr Kabimba, who is not a councillor at LCC, received an offer letter for plot number 915 in Lilayi.
According to a letter dated January 12, 2011 authored by council acting director for legal services Mumbi Chocho, Mr Kabimba was informed that the offer was temporary but the permanent one would be given to him in due course.
But in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Kabimba said his 15-acre plot in Lusaka West was re-entered and he decided to apply for a replacement and was given the Lilayi land.
He said the plots were not exclusively for councillors and members of Parliament but any other person was free to apply.
Asked how he knew about the plots since they were not advertised, Mr Kabimba said he applied to the commissioner of Lands.
The PF council was last month exposed over its dealings in the land administration after 45 councillors, council high ranking officials and members of Parliament allocated themselves plots.
Mandevu Constituency MP Jean Kapata and her Kanyama counterpart Gerry Chanda, also from PF, are the other councilors that received offer letters for plots and the December minutes on the subject confirmed that the two had been allocated plots.
The Land Act prescribes that all plots numbering above 100 must be advertised to residents to promote transparency in the allocation of plots and only allows councillors to receive plots if they are available during their tenure of office.
Following the revelations, Local Government and Housing Minister Brian Chituwo has suspended the council for 90 days and appointed the Copperbelt Local Government administrator Solomon Sakala to run the affairs of the council.
“The provisional offer is valid until a formal offer issued by the Lilayi Housing bearing the stand number with conditions for development,” Ms Chocho wrote in the letter.
[pullquote]“We therefore consider these allegations as malicious and cheap aimed at gaining political mileage. One would have thought TIZ was a credible non-partisan institution which should not get embroiled in mudslinging,” Mr Mwaliteta said.[/pullquote]
The letter is referenced number mm/ck.
“I am pleased to issue you a provisional offer of the above-mentioned stand at the Lilayi Housing Project as agreed between the LCC and Lilayi Housing,” the letter reads in part.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has since launched investigations against the council and officials recently entered the office of the mayor, which is being occupied by Mr Sakala to seek details on plots.
Dr Chituwo, LCC public relations manager Chanda Makanta and Mr Sakala all declined to comment, saying it would not be prudent to discuss a matter that was under investigations.
Mr Kabimba is on record calling for the reinstatement of the LCC, whose suspension he said was meant to weaken the PF in Lusaka and had even written to Dr Chituwo on the matter.
And Kafue District Council has challenged Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) to prove its allegations that the local authority awarded land to its councillors without following the laid down procedure.
Council chairperson Obvious Mwaliteta said in a statement obtained by the Times in Lusaka on Thursday that as an agent of the Ministry of Lands, the council adhered to all procedures when allocating land to any citizen who qualified for it.
Mr Mwaliteta said the council had in the past recommended allocation of land to various applicants who at one time included some councilors who applied as citizens.
Last week TIZ reported the alleged illegal allocation of land at Kafue District Council to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
“It is very unfortunate that TIZ made these allegations without even bothering to verify facts with the council before lodging a formal complaint to the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Local Government Minister, as a council we strongly refute the allegations and challenge TIZ to prove the allegations against the MMD-dominated council,” he said.
He said the council minutes were available for TIZ and members of the public to scrutinise on request. “This land was advertised in the public media and was open to everybody.
The number of plots was 450, and as of now less than half has been taken up and the rest are still available to anybody who would like to acquire them.
“We therefore consider these allegations as malicious and cheap aimed at gaining political mileage. One would have thought TIZ was a credible non-partisan institution which should not get embroiled in mudslinging,” Mr Mwaliteta said.
[Times of Zambia]
RB has just git some more plots in Chipata. Chituwo has plots in Mumbwa. George Kunda has obtained some land in Serenje. Kabimba did not get land by illegal means. He applied for it.
First and foremost we are Zambians before we become any office holders. As Zambians we are entitled to land. What is wrong is when land is given on patisan lines and one individual owning more land than others under equal opportunities.
they are thiefs just like FTJ . .. .
A pilot audit of the Mopani Copper Mines (picture) has revealed glaring irregularities in figures submitted to the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).
The audit, which was carried out in 2009 by Grant Thornton Zambia and Econ Pöyry, a Nordic consulting and engineering company, found that most problems arose from transfer pricing in dealings with its majority-owner, Swiss-owned Glencore AG. During the audited period from 2006 to 2008, Glencore had consistently bought copper at prices below the market value set by
I think this issue of Plots, the system is to blame, it has allowed so many legal loopholes. hence this never ending Plot saga. I think what we need is a law to stop this misplaced allocation of Plot tot he people allocating.
If it is true Mr. Winter got a Plot dubiously, then he will have to answer. No favours nor exception to anybodby. Even George Kunda got Plots in Serenje from the Council.
#1, #2 and other bloggers, please understand that the pieace of land these officials stole if u may allow me to use this word, is not like any other land they would allocate under their jurisdiction as LCC but that this was one of LCC’s registered properties. In short they could have taken one of the LCC’s Cars and sold then share the money??? Lets get to understand that even Kabimba’s defence here is shameful he says he applied for a replacement from Commissioner of land but the how come the replacement was coming from LCC??? Crooks!!!!! What these People committed is clear theft
#5 I m almost agreeing with u the system has a lot of loopholes just that #6 if any one followed this issue clearly u will see that the mayor and these officials stole and shared a council property which was in the first place not even meant to be allocated to the public later on council officers, MPs PF as it was just like any other many properties the Council owns
#2, it’s not just allocating land that hasn’t been advertised or giving out land out on a partisan basis that is wrong – it’s the very act of giving away land in the first place that stinks to high heaven!
Such practice only inspires corruption and attracts the worst kind of politician who is more interested in lining his or her pockets than in serving the public interest. The salaries our MPs, Councilors, and other civic leaders earn (…together with pride of public service!), should be enough reward without the nation having to give away plots. Such practice is never going to be transparent or equitable and anyone who says they need free land, let alone accepts that land land, just because they won an election is not fit to rule! As a nation, we should not stand for this!
The audit also found indications of inflated operation costs, inconsistency between internal production figures and those submitted to government and it estimated labour cost at Mopani during the audited period at 50 million US dollars – against Mopani’s “unexplainable” figure of 90 million US dollars.
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This issue of Plots allocators awarding themselves Plots should come to an end. They are using a phrase that “anybody is free to apply in their individual capacity” to award themselves prime land.
The Kafue District Council is lying that they followed the correct method to award and that there are Plots on offer still remaining.
This is a lie. There are no Plots remaining, they are trying to hoodwink everyone. The Anti Corruption should move in and investigate, No need for the corrupt Council to issue a defence. Now chi Chituwo must move in quickly with the same speed he executed to disolve LCC.
Dont divert from the issue..Wynter Kabimba is an aspiring PUBLIC LEADER in Zambia and he has his hands muddied in this manner? Can this person rule us with a straight face? He knows he had obtained land that was NEVER advertised the least he can do is be forthright. This is the same person that sold a council house in Lubu Road to a Chinese National contrary to the law the man is Rodge V Lee..investigate and you will see…..
Another thing that is wrong with allocating land is to consider how much time this consumes.
Imagine if our elected official put as much effort into discussing things like urban waste removal, measures to reduce traffic congestion, and provision of other basic public services as am sure was spent on squabbling over who would get what plot of land.
‘One would have thought TIZ was a credible non-partisan institution which should not get embroiled in mudslinging,” Mr Mwaliteta said.’
Slaps on the face for Goodwell Lungu and Lifuka.
Corruption is corruption regardless of who has committed the offence. its unfortunate to read supporters of PF trying to justify the LCC councillor land scum.
equally of concern is the good silence by some of CSOs, instead of ensuring that this is persued, they have gone to report on other land scums, is it soar graps ba T
we knew winter had interests..hahaha..pf wawa!!
Pipo why are we defending something you know is wrong,.Winter and his colleagues got land dubiously why are we defending them,let them face the wrath of the law if at all they will be found wanting
See the folly of the MMD and Chituo. The MMD Kafue council is defending itself before being investigated…why. What we want to see is that Chituwo should suspend Kafue council as he promised us that he would suspend any council if he received a report from Zambians about its corruption.
The corruption of MMD Kafuel council has been reported , why is it not suspended and why are the DEC and ACC not moving in to investigate?
You see…the PF councils are the only ones being targeted…why ? Coz it is political….dull MMD creatures.
but the fact remains that this year 2011 MMD kuyabebele.
this lose lose lawyer who never won a case in court. when he was town clerk he sold himsel a council VIP house at a give away price. this is well documented in the weekly post. kabimba is known for sangwapo. anyway if sata was to win elections Mmembe would be made VP. what a dream
Just grab the land back. Has the said land disappeared? Why bark, bark ba MMD? Find something else to keep you busy
ba de javu what are you pf upnd unip add nared or cosmo mumba party
JUST GRAB THE LAND BACK AND THEN ADVERTISE
What else is new? All these politicians are rotten to the core. PF condemning MMD on corruption is like the pot calling the kettle black! The chaps are all the same ‘boat’.
#20
LADY GAGA GAGA GAGA GAGA – I thought you had advised me not to respond to your postings? What has changed? By the way I am Zambian who pays tax to your rotten GRZ without seeing any benifits that is why Ia angry. LOOK at # 4 and # 9, I bet you no MMD GRZ will talk about this.
#21
Zambian – That is what I said in #19, but this GAGA (maize bran) starts to insult me, can you imagine
# 11 Muleya
That is PF for you. They have zero integrity and think they can rule zambia while covered in corruption excrement. Unfortunetly for them the Zambian pipo have grown since FJTs days, we know aspiring plunderers when we see them. PF is rotten to the core. How can they have such a scandle dented personm, winter. as their point man ?. They are stealing non stop even before they get into GRZ. Imagine they day PF rule, without an economic plan.
Some people have been on the waiting list to acquire land for a long time, but for others it is automatic. I don’t know how petroda has managed to acquire all the land they are putting filling stations, how the chinese, indians, etc have managed to get land while me a Zambian am failuring.
We need to do a Tunisia / Egypt because a lot has gone wrong in our beaurtiful country. Once that is done anyone who will comes to power will be scared to get on the wrong footing with us.
These crooks should be stopped by all means, thats why they will never form Govt come 2011 election!
All the so called major parties, PF, MMD. UPND and others are corrupt and have no interest to serve poor Zambians, their main agenda is their pockets, their families and friends. They are so blinded by their corrup practices that they think ordinary Zambians don’t know what’s going on. The scandal of plots- grabbing is country wide and is just a chip of the iceberg on the rot that is now a way of life. God please send us a redeemer to liberate us from these vultures.
MMD hang huge invisible signs at all points of entry reading “Zambia for sale, Name Your Price’ PF have to state their land policy clearly. MPS and other leaders should apply for land like me and you or otherwise it is called corruption. PF have you forgotten all your promises. Zambia is still driving on the highway called corruption, only the speed has changed, it’s little slower and drivers more careful