• HOPE AT LAST: Former Mindolo North residents who had their illegally constructed homes demolished, queue up to receive offer letters from the council for new plots at Buchi Hall yesterday. Picture by THOMAS KAPUMPE

By MAYA NTANDA –
DISPLACED Mindolo North residents who have been issued with offer letters to relocate to Kitwe East in Kafue area have commended the Kitwe City Council (KCC) and the Government for the gesture.
The beneficiaries expressed gratitude to KCC and the Government for giving them alternative land after their structures in Mindolo North were demolished for allegedly being built on illegally acquired plots.
The Disaster Management Mitigating Unit (DMMU) under the Vice-President’s office offered humanitarian aid to more than 200 affected families by putting up tents at Helen Kaunda Secondary School grounds as temporary shelter.
A check at Buchi Hall in Kitwe yesterday, found the beneficiaries receiving offer letters from KCC officials upon production of National Registration Cards (NRC)
One of the beneficiaries Moses Mwango said he was happy he had an opportunity to build a house on legal land.
Mr Mwango said lessons had been learnt that it did not pay to acquire land illegally but to follow laid down procedures.
“I am so happy that Government has looked into this issue after mistakes were made, and it is a lesson that one should not just pick land and start constructing anyhow,” he said.
Another beneficiary Beauty Chansa, however, said, even though she was happy to have been given another plot, she did not know where she would get money to construct her house.
Ms Chansa said she was still servicing the loan that she obtained to put up a structure in Mindolo North.
Kitwe Town Clerk Bornwell Luanga said the beneficiaries were only those that were at the transit camp at the school and that the local authority had worked in collaboration with Red Cross officials to come up with the list.
Mr Luanga said the gesture was done on humanitarian grounds and advised members of the public to desist from acquiring land illegally.
The offer letters indicated that one has to pay K3,000 service charges and that the plots have to be developed within 18 months, failure to do so would cause the council to recommend for the repossession of the land.