Sat, 01 Jul 2017 10:56:27 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
DETAILS have emerged that the Chinese who are constructing a four-storey shopping mall in Kalundu registered their business with PACRA and were given title to land before they legalised their stay in Zambia, according to documents from the Ministry of Lands, PACRA and the Immigration Department.
According to the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Act, a non-Zambian can own property only if they have an entry permit which gives them permanent residency in Zambia. A non-Zambian can apply for an entry permit if they have been in continuous employment for 12 years under a work permit or have held a self-employment permit for three years and run a viable business.
Further, the Act provides that a non-Zambian can own property by being a minority shareholder in a company incorporated in Zambia where citizens own 75 percent of the shares.
But details obtained from the Ministry of Lands by the Daily Nation yesterday showed that Shumeite Investments Limited was given title to Plot no. 5477 on December 8, 2016, at the time that none of the three Chinese nationals who exclusively own the company had made their stay in Zambia permanent.
According to details obtained from the Immigration Department, only two of the three have records showing that they are legally in the country while the other one does not have proper documentation save for a report order.
Mr Chen Wu, who is the company secretary, has an employment permit which he renewed last year and runs up to 2018 while Mr Xiaoping Qiu, who owns 13,500 shares, only applied for an investor’s permit on June 1, 2017, and has since been approved.
The other shareholder, Mr Chunxian Lan, who owns 1,500 shares, is said to be still on a report order.
Shumeite Investments Limited owns one of the malls under construction in Kalundu residential area in Lusaka which has since been halted by the National Council for Construction (NCC) owing to failure to meet its benchmarks before the project took off.
Lusaka City mayor Wilson Kalumba told the Daily Nation last week that the residents who had blocked the construction of the mall were being mischievous as they had no proper case to present as the area in contention was part of the mixed development zone which could accommodate both residential and commercial projects.
However, the council has failed to produce evidence to show that the rightful procedure, such as the change of ownership, approved drawings, the public’s submission on the change of purpose, an environmental assessment report from ZEMA, among other things, had been granted.
Residents have vowed to fight the Chinese and the council to the bitter end until the structure is razed down, saying they could not allow illegality take centre stage while they watched because that was promoting corruption in local governance.
The Daily Nation would soon publish contradicting documents in its possession from the council which were aimed at covering up the mess after residents rose against the construction of the mall by the Chinese company.
Meanwhile, the LCC has come under intense fire from its councillors who have questioned how council properties were changing hands to private ownership without their input and have ordered the council to find out from the commissioner of land how this was possible without their approval.
