Sun, 27 Aug 2017 11:53:30 +0000
…follow the law or else…
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
SHUMEITE Investments Limited will not be allowed to recommence construction on their mall in Kalundu unless all the anomalies we have cited have been rectified failure to which the premises will remain closed, the National Council for Construction (NCC) has warned.
NCC public relations officer Chama Mwansa told the Daily Nation that the investor had not met the benchmarks required by NCC to resume construction and that as long as the situation remained the same, they will not entertain any manoeuvres to resume work which has since been halted due to glaring irregularities.
Ms. Mwansa said at the time of closure, Shumeite did not have approved drawings in English and that it had not contracted a professional consultant for its project which meant that it could not go ahead.
She said Shumeite had since submitted its full drawings in English but had not yet engaged a professional consultant and that as long as all the benchmarks were not met, their project will remain closed as no construction will be entertained.
“At the time we closed them down, they did not have full drawings in English on site and they had not engaged a professional consultant for their project. They have since submitted the drawings for approval to the NCC which are in English and we are just waiting for them to engage a professional consultant.
The Shumeite project was halted on June 23, 2017 by NCC because it was not registered as per requirement of SI No. 39 of 2015.
The developer also failed to provide the NCC with approved drawings from the Lusaka City Council (LCC) as the mandate to approve such projects lay with LCC after all the legal requirements including approving change of use from residential to commercial are met.
However, the investor resumed construction three days later after getting a letter from Town Clerk Alex Mwansa which suggested that there was no need for the change of ownership since the area was in the mixed development zone, while ignoring the issue of approved drawings as what the company had were allegedly in Chinese.
This attracted sharp reaction from residents who took LCC to task to explain under which circumstances the investor was allowed to go ahead, a development which caught attention of Lusaka Province Minister Japhen Mwakalombe who stepped in and halted the construction.
