By MOFFAT CHAZINGWA –

CHAIRPERSON of the Taskforce on illegal land allocation and acquisition, Panji Kaunda has taken to task the Kitwe City Council (KCC) management for allowing the construction of a building near the edge of the road.
The infrastructure in question, City Gate, is a two-storey complex comprising offices, shops and a car park being constructed in the central business district on President Avenue right in front of the civic centre building.
The building, located close to the edge of the road, could not escape the attention of Colonel Kaunda who saw it as a hazard.
Col Kaunda, who is Home Affairs deputy minister, wasted no time in quizzing council management as to why such a building was allowed to be constructed on the edge of a busy road thereby endangering the lives of the people.
Col Kaunda, who refused to accept Kitwe Town Clerk Bornwell Luanga’s defence that his management had found the project already in progress, said it was astonishing that councils were quick to undertake demolitions of small housing structures such as those in Mufuchani leaving out big offences like the City Gate.
“The law must be respected by all. If you found out this was wrongly located, why not demolish it? I think the law must be respected by all. Why demolish small houses in Mufuchani and a bigger office is left?” Col Kaunda asked.
He pledged to probe the matter, saying he would seek advice from the Ministry of Justice on how to deal with the issue.
Meanwhile, Col Kaunda said the Taskforce would ensure that any member of Parliament or councilors involved in illegal land matters were made to face the law.
He said cases of illegal land administration had gone out of hand and, as such, there was need to restore sanity in the land administration system in the country.
Col Kaunda said the Taskforce was determined to cleanse councils of corrupt tendencies involving land administration so that sanity could be restored.
He said this in Kitwe when the Taskforce on illegal land allocation and acquisition toured the Kitwe City Council for the instituted illegal land forensic.