By CHUSA SICHONE –

FORMER African National Congress (ANC) flats tenants in Lusaka’s Villa Elizabetha have disclosed that they lost more than K100,000 cash when Women for Change sent bailiffs accompanied by police to evict them on Tuesday evening.
Former ANC flats tenants representative Towela Chipeta, who confirmed the development in an interview, further accused the bailiffs and police of having “hooligans” in their entourage who allegedly consumed food and drinks belonging to some tenants during the eviction.
“Things have been broken (because) they were being thrown around. One of my colleagues has lost US$1,000, somebody else lost over K20,000 another person has lost I don’t know how many dollars. I lost K3,000,” she said.
Ms Chipeta said tenants vowed to continue spending nights outside until they obtained a court injunction.
Bailiffs struck again on Thursday evening and removed all tenants who had moved back in the premises with their property. The bailiffs locked the gate after removing the tenants from the yard, leaving them
on Mwayi Road.
When contacted for a comment, police assistant public relations officer Esther Katongo clarified that police did not evict people but that they only offered security to those who were executing evictions.
Meanwhile, Lusaka Province Minister Obvious Mwaliteta has pledged through the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) to assist the 72 families evicted from the former ANC flats in Lusaka’s Villa Elizabetha.
Mr Mwaliteta, who visited the families on Friday evening, described what he found as a saddening situation as the evicted families had continued spending nights outside together with their belongings as
they had nowhere else to go.
Mr Mwaliteta, however, said DMMU could not provide tents for the affected families as there was no adequate space on Mwayi Road where they have been spending nights since their eviction on Tuesday evening.