LAND SCAM GOES TO ACC

Sat, 18 Feb 2017 12:03:12 +0000

By BENNIE MUNDANDO

BACK-DATED title deeds issued by the Ministry of Lands with intent to mislead the rightful owners of the eight plots in Lusaka’s Roma area and award them to among others, Felix Yona, a foreign national and former Lusaka Mayor Daniel Chisenga’s daughter,
Natasha, have been exposed.

Meanwhile, the eight affected individuals have dragged the Ministry of Lands to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for dubiously giving away their plots which they are claiming were given to them by the council after following laid down procedure on land acquisition.

Last year, Luwabelwa Luwabelwa and Majumo Khunga, the purported owners of plot Nos. 38372 and 38373, reported Danny Matembo and seven others to Chelstone police for criminal trespass on the said property.

However, police investigations released on 18th November, 2016 found that Mr. Matembo and his group had authentic documents, contrary to the duo’s claims.

According to a report, Mr. Luwabelwa and Mr. Khunga neither substantiated their claims that they had title to the said pieces of land nor availed the original owners of the plots in 2016 after they reported Mr. Matembo to police for criminal trespass.

But photocopies of print-outs from the Ministry of lands obtained by the Daily Nation indicate that the ministry issued titles to Ms. Chisenga and Mr. Yona on 11th May 2015 and that the duo sold their plots two days later, on 14th may 2015 with Mr. Luwabelwa and Tendai Mazokela as potential buyers while Barnaby & Chitundu advocates acted as caveators for both transactions.

According to Mr. Matembo, the disparities in dates were allegedly manipulated by some officials at the ministry after the police cleared him and his group of any wrong-doing in order to consolidate Mr. Luwabelwa and Mr. Khunga’s claims that they bought the plots from Ms. Chisenga and Mr. Yona.

Meanwhile, the eight have dragged the Ministry of Land to the ACC over the deepening land wrangle which they said had inconvenienced them.

Speaking after presenting their report to the ACC yesterday, Mr. Matembo said the group was ready to go to jail over their plots and would not be intimidated by anyone, saying the decision by the ministry to give the plots to other people was a clear case of abuse of authority of office and corruption.

“This is a clear case of corruption and abuse of authority and I wonder where this country is going with this kind of corruption in the system. These are the same people who are making the President unpopular because of their sinister activities and we want the ACC to get to the bottom of this matter,” Mr. Matembo said.