.Mangani

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –

FORMER Chipata Central, Member of Parliament (MP) Lameck Mangani faces eviction from a house belonging to his former employers Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ) for non-payment of an outstanding amount towards its purchase.
But Mr Mangani has since filed an injunction in the Lusaka High Court seeking to restrain TBZ from repossessing house number 107 on plot 1463 Umodzi High Way in Chipata, Eastern Province.
The former Home Affairs minister in the MMD Government has told the court in his injunction that he will suffer irreparable injury if TBZ evicted him from the house he bought under the Presidential Housing Empowerment Scheme.
Mr Mangani is also former Patriotic Front Eastern Province chairperson but is now United Party for National Development (UPND) member.
He said he was committed to paying the outstanding balance.
He stated in his affidavit in support of ex-parte  summons for an order of interim injunction that as a former employee of Tobacco Development Company, a subsidiary of TBZ, he was entitled to purchase the house under the Presidential Housing Empowerment Scheme as a sitting tenant.
He claimed that following his decision to move from the then ruling MMD to join the PF, his name was removed from the list of sitting tenants that were earmarked to get offer letters to purchase the houses.
He later sought the intervention of late President Michael Sata who directed that he be offered to buy the house.
Mr Mangani further alleged that because of the unfair treatment he was subjected to, he was exempted from paying rentals by TBZ and was finally given the offer to buy the house on August 15, 2013 at K165,750.
The offer letter did not indicate when he was supposed to pay the full amount but it was dependent on the rentals each sitting tenant was paying.
He has so for paid K80, 000 but on February 10, 2015, TBZ wrote to him stating that the offer letter granted to him would be revoked if the outstanding balance was not paid fully by March 30, this year.
The letter also demanded that Mr Mangani pays the rental arrears amounting to K33, 300 in full by the same date despite him being exempted from paying rentals.
Mr Mangani alleged that TBZ intended to revoke the offer letter and evict him from the house on political grounds following his switch from the PF to UPND.
He said the house was offered to him on the Presidential Housing Empowerment Scheme and not on a commercial basis and as such, the demand by TBZ that he should pay the outstanding amount by March 30, this year was unjustifiable and unreasonable.
It is for that reason that he was seeking an injunction to restrain TBZ from revoking the offer letter, evicting him, harassing, repossessing, selling and or dealing with the house until the full determination of the matter.