Land agency ban will clean up council mess, says NAREP

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 11:45:30 +0000

By MUKOSELA KASALWE

THE revocation of land agents’ licenses for Kabwe and Ndola districts because of alleged corrupt practices will bring sanity in councils as numerous citizens have suffered at the hands of a few selfish individuals, says NAREP Central Province chairperson Belington Mulenga.

In an interview, Mr. Mulenga said the opposition party had been vindicated for branding most councils in the country corrupt on issues to do with land and that the action was long overdue.

He expressed confidence that the revocation of land agents’ licenses would pave way for thorough investigations in land acquisition and urged the Anti-Corruption Commission to take keen interest in the issue.

Mr. Mulenga said it was unfortunate that citizens had suffered at the hands of a few selfish individuals who act with impunity when handling issues to do with land and cited the recent encroachment on land belonging to the Kabwe Institute of Technology.

“As NAREP we feel vindicated for branding most councils as corrupt on issues to do with land allocation and we welcome the revocation of land agents’ licenses for Kabwe and Ndola districts as it will bring sanity in the councils,” he said.

And Mr. Mulenga appealed to President Edgar Lungu to consider dividing Kapiri constituency into three constituencies, namely East, Central and South because of the vastness of the area and that it was one of the reasons some areas did not receive a fair share of development.

He said equally, Chisamba constituency of Chief Chamuka needed to be divided into two as the current Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was meagre to cater for the entire area.

Lands Minister Jean Kapata recently indefinitely suspended the Ndola City Council and Kabwe Municipal Council as land administration agents.

Ms. Kapata said all land administration processes in the two councils would be handled by the provincial lands office until sanity was restored in the two local authorities.

The minister said the decision was arrived at following high prevalence of illegality and lawlessness in land allocation and acquisition because of disregard to guidelines and laid down procedures in land administration by the two local authorities.