By MARTIN NYIRENDA –
A SCANDAL has been unearthed in which the Ndola City Council (NCC) has offered residential stands at the Ndola National Forest number F38 covering 330 hectares of land. The plots are in Dola Hill area which is yet to be de-gazetted.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Christabel N’gimbu said last week that the Government was in the process of de-gazetting Dola Hill in an exercise expected to be completed in a month’s time.
But the Sunday Times is in possession of some documents which show that the NCC has already provisionally allocated some residential plots in the forest reserve, which are subject to ratification by the council, contrary to Government procedure.
The NCC offered Mapesa Musukwa residential stand number 002 Dola Hill in a letter dated August 5, 2014, whose reference details are LM/DLS/DH/002 and signed by Town Clerk Ernest Sumani and copied to the directors of legal services, city planning and finance.
“The use of this stand shall be restricted to residential purposes only,” reads the letter in part.
An undercover survey by the Sunday Times yesterday revealed that plots which the NCC was selling at K13,500 were being resold by the new owners at an inflated price of K50,000 for a 50 x 40 plot.
In the presence of the undercover reporters, an ‘estate’ agent, Felix Zimba, contacted a Dr Mwambazi who got plot number 003, and a Mr Chewe (plot 004), all from Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital (ADCH), who have both been offered plots in the un-degazatted forest reserve and expressed willingness to resell their plots.

• NDOLA District Commissioner (DC) Rebby Chanda (right) shows Sunday Times staffers (not in picture) the land that will be de-gazetted for allocation to residents at Ndola Forest, while estate agent Felix Zimba looks on. Picture by MUNAMBEZA MUWANEI

Incidentally, as the Sunday Times reporter was surveying the allocated plots, the Ndola District Commissioner Rebby Chanda, pulled over from the Mufulira highway opposite Mitengo area and asked: “What is happening here, I can see cameras?” to which the agent responded: “These people are merely looking at the land.”
Mr Chanda said the Government was in the process of de-gazetting the Dola Hill forest reserve so as to offer land to people so that they could build houses.
He identified the area as Dola Hill Forest No 38, which the NCC contradicted in its response to the Times query.
“This land is yet to be de-gazzetted by the Government. And we want to offer this land to people to enable them develop it,” said Mr Chanda, as he stretched his hand to point to where the land ends, almost near the entrance of the Mitengo graveyard.
Some beacons have since been placed to demarcate some plots in the same forest reserve.
The ‘estate agent’ offered this author plot numbers 7 and 8 at a reduced fee of K35,000 each and indicated that K13,500 should be paid to the NCC as land fee for a single plot.
Apparently, investigations showed that the agent was inquiring about the prices of the plots from a known senior council official.
In an off-target rebut, the NCC retorts:  “With reference to the copy of offer letter LM /DLS /DH /002 in the possession of the Sunday Times, it is appropriate that NCC addresses the misconception that has arisen herein. The misconception relates to the usage of the name Dola Hill which even the said offer letter carries.
“From the time the degazzetion of ‘Dola Hill forest’ was made public, vis a vis construction of 1,700 housing units by the Ndola City Council/Henan Gouji joint venture, the common assumption has been that the term Dola Hill refers to yet-to-be degazzeted forest area.
Officially this forest is called Ndola Forest No 38.
“An area called Dola Hill exists outside the ‘Dola Hill’ forest earmarked for degazzetion. Apparently the same area Dola Hill is developed. With this explanation, it must be stated that the offer letter in your possession relates to the existing Dola Hill area, not the Ndola Forest No 38”.
De-gazetting of the forest reserve is the Government’s response to the increased population in Ndola aimed at allocating land to people for them to build their own houses.