By SYLVESTER MWALE –
KABWE Mayor Prince Chileshe has said the suspension of the land administration agency for the local authority by the central Government does not stop it from preventing land grabbing currently going on.
The council lost its land agency to the Ministry of Lands early this year amid serious allegations of corruption and defiance of laws on the administration of land by the local authority.
The suspension came soon after the council had offered more than 1,000
plots and there are currently serious concerns that the same plots are now being invaded by land thieves.
Speaking in an interview, Mr Chileshe said the council, as a planning authority, was still in charge of development control and anyone taking up plots that were offered before the suspension risked being arrested.
“Therefore, for all those people that think that they can take advantage of the suspension of the agency to do wrong things, I am sorry to disappoint you because as council we are enforcing the law,” Mr Chileshe said.
“We are even going to increase patrols in these communities where people are doing wrong things; we have been given a the list of people that are behind this illegal land allocation.”
Mr Chileshe said the fact that the municipality remained the planning authority, people should not think that the local authority had become
toothless in the protection of land with the recent suspension.
With the suspension of the agency, the local authority cannot handle fresh applications of land but can refer such matters to the Ministry of Lands and advise whether the commodity is available for allocation.
Meanwhile, the local authority has dispelled allegations that the management has decided to engage debt collectors without following the laid-down procedures.
Public relations officer Kabaenda Makwele said in a statement that a simplified bidding was done in which three companies had expressed interest before the local authority picked Nshinda Debt Collection Service and Kent Boss Certified Bailiffs.
“According to the contract, the companies are entitled to 10 per cent each for each debt they collect through their effort. Therefore, Nshinda and Kent are getting 10 per cent from a delinquent bill, that is, from defaulters,” he said.