•KAFULA shows the original Lusaka City Council copy of the offer letter and purchase receipts for his New Kamwala house that he was nearly duped of. Picture By SAM PHIRI

By  SAM PHIRI –
A LUSAKA resident has threatened to take legal action against Lusaka City Council (LCC) which he suspects of complicity in his near-loss of a New Kamwala house to an Indian.
Daniel Kafula, aged 66, also says council authorities later wrongly detained him for three hours in the council police cells after accusing him of trying to sell the house to two people.
Asked for a comment, LCC assistant public relations manager Brenda Katongola said the council was aware of the case and had instituted investigations.
“We know about this issue and our investigative wing is on the ground trying to establish the genesis of the anomaly and persons involved,” she said.
There has of late been a scramble for houses by Zambians of Indian origin in Lusaka’s Kamwala Township through either crooked or genuine transactions, a development many people say is worrying.
The latest scam involves Mr Kafula of house number 4, Lumezi Road in Kamwala, who was chasing title deeds for the same property when he met his fate which he described as a nightmare.
After buying a house in 1998 at K2,280,000 (old currency), Mr Kafula was issued with a receipt on December 20, 2001, but he could not pursue the title as he was soon taken ill.
“In 2011 when I recovered, I did not have enough money to pay the whole amount required then for the issuance of the title deed until December 2014 when I went to clear the balance of K266,000  and I have this receipt number ZN 2396 ,” Mr Kafula said.
Mr Kafula was referred to the title deed department to collect his title, but was shocked when he was told that he had sold the house to an Indian by the name of Solly Patel and that he simply wanted to
resell it to another person.
Physically frail, the old man in his poor health state was detained in the LCC police cell on suspicion that he wanted to get a double deal out on his property.
After three hours, Mr Kafula was released for interrogations and officers in the CID showed him the title deed which was now in Mr Solly Patel’s name. It was at this point that it was discovered that
Mr Kafula’s signature was actually forged.
“To prove to them, I was told to sign 10 times before they were convinced that indeed it was not my signature. It was fake,” Mr Kafula said.
The anomaly in the title deed was that there was a wrong copy of an offer letter belonging to a Peggy Banda of Chilenje.
According to the legal procedures of selling such a property, Mr Kafula would have handed over the original copy of the offer letter to the new house buyer but it is safely in his possession.
Asked who Solly Patel was, the LCC officers expressed ignorance of who he really was, not even his traceable address, phone number, as well as occupation.
This left a big question as to how possible it actually could be for the LCC to issue such sensitive documents to persons they could not even trace!
The title deed is currently ready and in the hands of the CID of the LCC who said they were making efforts to try and track down Mr Solly Patel.
Critically analysing the whole issue, all pointers are directed towards LCC officers conniving with the Indian in wanting to render the old man homeless.
This might just be one of the many cases of such nature, especially involving Kamwala area where LCC officers are usually caught up in a web of corruption.
Mr Kafula, who is contemplating legal action against LCC, reported the matter to the Anti-Corruption Commission where he was advised that this was more of a police case as it involved forging of documents.