SPECIAL assistant to the President for press and public relations Amos Chanda says President Sata authorised the construction of a new State House following a recommendation by the Ministry of Works and Supply.
Mr Chanda said at first President Sata refused to build a new State House but he later reconsidered his decision after being told that the current structure poses a danger to life.
Speaking on Prime Television discussion programme on Monday, Mr Chanda said President Sata engaged a reputable private firm to assess the safety of the current State House.
He said after President Sata was made aware of the gravity of the danger the current structure has, he authorised extensive repairs and if possible building a new State House.
“The private firm reached the same verdict that has been reached by the parliamentary committee on works and supply that there is need for a new State House,” he said.
Mr Chanda said State House has been told by structural engineers at the Ministry of Works and Supply that there is a safety risk to people who live and work there.
And Last week, Amos Chanda wrote the following on WhatsApp platform
RB’s Cabinet approved the construction that is why he commissioned the new design we found but he lost elections and Mr Sata without a brief on the major structural defaults the building suffered threw out the plans within days after taking power.
In his second year as president, structural engineers returned to him and gave him the report. Mr Sata subjected the report to a renowned private engineering firm very close to him (they are still part of the latest assessment done three months ago). Mr Sata authorized them to begin preps for a new building, because the findings were damning!
Just like the new Airport which Mr Sata had rejected, the construction of a new one started under him once he had been properly briefed. the small colonial airfield (KKIA)was unable to cope with the advancing developments in aeronautical industry.
I said here that Dickson deliberately left out security reasons, for obvious reasons of oath, but nevertheless the arguments he presented are persuasive. I can a go a little further because being in the job currently I can navigate some classified information on the matter.
The 2015 Cabinet did not reject the proposal from works minister: Cabinet approved in principle but directed the minister to shelve the plans until later. Of course newspaper headlines screamed ” cabinet rejects new state house”! That was not the case, I am the one who drafted the press statement for chief Govt Spokesperson to release, so I know what the minutes of that Cabinet said.
So it is wrong to state that RB Cabinet did not approve and EL Cabinet did not approve.
Again I can only urge those who think structural engineers are wrong, Cabinet is wrong, parliament is wrong and security services are wrong to tell us what their objections are!
As for the money, a friendly country alarmed at the state of the building has no problem with the $20 million grant, had they known of this state of affairs they would have directed their grant from lesser causes to this one they say.
The arguments about White House and Buckingham palace rehabs cannot hold. Those people built those buildings for purposes of offices and residence this one was not, it was built as a ten-room residence for the governor.
What about Parliament? once we follow the constitution and expand constituencies, no amount of alterations will make it suitable to accommodate the new numbers. A new one will be inevitable!
What about our premier conference facility Mulungushi conference centre? Would it wise to argue that the new ultra modern facility being built east of Lusaka is a waste of money, we should just alter and expand MICC because it hosted the Queen in 1979?
As for No. 10 Downing Street, that is not the first residence of the PM. Chatham House, (the Royal foreign policy institute) is where the PM residence was, it was small and unable to accommodate the demands of the PM’s office so they built a new residence and offices which today’ s famous No. 10. Secondly, Whitehall and not No. 10 is the HQ of the British government!
When Tony Blair was PM, the Quarters of the adjacent No.8 Downing Street were also used by him since he had a bigger family. the chancellor of the exchequer who normally resides there moved elsewhere.
When I attended a course at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s School of Government we were told that the “power of the state is in ceremony”! So, if the State is unable to do the thing that Dickson Jere articulated, then it fails a great deal in that respect!
So a man who was sick and not able to fully utilise his faculties made a very absurd decision and you pf thugs deliberately act ignorant and go ahead with a plans of a dead man. That is why I say that lungu is a dead man walking
This little man Chanda is full of ……..
Please let ba Sata RIP.
God Bless Zambia
Build it. Its just $20 million.
City market will cost $20 million.
Tabernacle of all PF will cost $20 million.
We need an independent group of structural engineers to do an independent assessment. Hearing from the same MMD-PF people who are pushing for the project is still a one sided story.
Build it quickly! Us future leaders want a proper place where we will develop zambia
Guys let’s be serious . Let Sata rest in peace and correct his mistakes instead of Captilizing on them.
i have never been a fun of Sata but leave the dead man alone; if he signed it he was forced to sign for it as a sick man who did not know what he was signing; let Lungu do what Sata really did to reject this new state house;
It had already been approved. Mr. Sata was just impulsive – he made the same U-turning decision on KKIA.
You want to eat you guys pay first what you are owing then come last.
Please build the new state house quickly for HH to come and use it come 2021. Those objecting are not part of UNPD. The US White house has been renovated several times to comply with aging of the building and rising security challenges, including complete rebuild. Read American history.
Just where are our priorities? Falling ceilings and leaking roofs are not structural defects. We are spending money like mad men again without any effort to prioritise our needs. It is a well known fact that Michael Sata (MSRIP) was non compos mentis as he approached his appointment with the maker. The building that I see ECL pose in front of time and again does not have any patent structural defects and as someone has already suggested, government should furnish the Tax payer with an independent engineer’s report on these so called defect. If the building is a danger to it’s occupants, it should be evacuated forthwith and cordoned off.
I remember very well Late President Sata rejected this project , something like H type State House.
These people are shameless liars who can accuse in death and even sell their wives and daughters to a brothel.
Anyway what do you expect when RB is there mentor.
Please build something which Zambians can benefit not something which will only benefit by one family. You just want to get commission from Chines.
Mwilatubepa.The late Sata is not here to speak for himself
Amos Chanda it’s evil and a sin to lie about Sata. Surely when evil consumes man’s heart there is nothing left to feel ashamed of. We all know Sata never allowed to build new state house. The airport you are talking about was agreed by the cabinet as it adds value to the economy. Chella has denied this in plain white. Dr Keseba Sata and his children are alive and they hears your lies each time about Sata who can not in anyway defend him. Few Sata followers can speak out for the fear of persecutions from men benefiting from the hard earned labour of love. People who are thieves, cockroaches are even not ashamed that we are not happy for them to be
Justifying their corruptions using late Sata. We will fight you to the bitter end. Stop misusing Sata. Sata was a man of people. Real PF…