By GRACE CHAILE
OVER 100 shop owners at Lusaka’s Intercity Bus terminus have sued Lusaka City Council (LCC), challenging the increase in monthly rentals from K200 to K1, 500.
According to documents filed at the Lusaka High Court, Viora Mayobo and 102 other shop owners wants the court to compel the local authority to reduce the monthly rentals from K1, 500 to a reasonable K300. They are seeking an order of interim injunction restraining LCC from collecting the K1, 500 until after determination of this matter.
The shop owners are also demanding damages for inconvenience and loss of business as well as interest on all the monies found due.
The plaintiffs stated that in 2019, they were allocated temporal trading spaces at Inter City bus station. They further said that they were charged K200 monthly levies per trading space.
It was submitted that through the board at the Station, they were allowed to construct permanent shops using their resources. But they were last year shocked when LCC increased the rentals from K200 to K1,500.
“Efforts have been made to engage the defendant in some discussions with a view of possibly reducing the said rentals to a reasonable amount of about K300 per month and probably with a gradual increment per year considering that the shops were constructed by the plaintiffs themselves but that the same has been neglected, ignored or simply refused by the defendant to reach a compromise,” they stated.
