.Chenda

By XAVIER MANCHISHI –

GOVERNMENT will re-negotiate the lease agreement between Lusaka City Council and a Chinese investor on Lusaka’s Luburma market, Local Government and Housing Minister Emmanuel Chenda has disclosed.
The council signed a 65 year lease agreement with China Hinan in 2003 for the Luburma market in the second class trading area in Kamwala.
But Mr Chenda in an interview yesterday vowed to ensure that Government re-negotiates the lease agreement which he said was benefiting the investor more than the Zambian people.
“This agreement is ridiculous. The investors have already recouped their money but there are not benefits being accrued to the people of Zambia. We are not blaming anyone here but we must reasonable,” he said.
Mr Chenda said the structures at Luburma Market were not even durable enough to last that long and that Government would not sit idle waiting for the remaining 40 years of the lease agreement to lapse before taking action.
The minister warned councils countrywide to desist from entering into loose agreements with investors adding that if bad laws can be repealed, nothing would stop Government from re-negotiating deals such as the Luburma concession.
“Our duty as Government is to correct the mistakes that were made by others even if we were not in these offices at the time. It will be irresponsible for us to watch while an investor is benefiting from amenities that belong to the people of Zambia,” he said.
Last week, Chairperson of the Committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply Kapembwa Simbao, who is also Senga Hill Member told Parliament said all records in the market lease agreement had gone missing.
In February this year, the Zambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry also questioned the motive behind the long leasing of the Luburma market and Kasumbalesa border post.
The two projects were developed through the Public Private Partnership initiative where the Luburma market project was concessioned for 65 years while the Kasumbalesa border was to run for 25 years.
Government has since cancelled the Kasumbalesa border post concession on grounds that law and procedure were not followed when the concession was signed while the Luburma market agreement still stands.
ZACCI president, Geoffrey Sakulanda, who appeared before the committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply said the two projects could have been riddled with lack of political will as well as corruption.