Chingola Council under spotlight ----------as Town Clerk calls an emergency Council meeting

CHINGOLA Municipal Council is under spotlight following the revelation of alleged illegal land allocation activities in the district by some councilors.

The situation has prompted Chingola Town Clerk George Mulenga to call for an emergency special council meeting this Thursday 14:00 hours to table the alleged illegal land allocation.

Speaking to The Independent Observer newspaper one of the councillors said Chingola land allocation was a menace and if nothing was done too soon to stop the vice, it would possibly stir up chaos in the district.

Already the Anti-Corruption Commission has interviewed all councillors, chief officers, some council employees and members of the public regarding land illegality. So far no one knows the findings of ACC and the subsequent action.

He said the biggest problem was that the revelation of the alleged illegal land allocation was meant to implicate the big fish within the PF party.

He said the in-fighting within PF was worrying.

The source sympathised with the Town Clerk because the war was mainly between the mayor Cuthbert Kalebaila and the District Commissioner George Sichula.

“There are camps within the PF in what we call ‘The War of the Titans’. The DC has his camp and the mayor has his. And within the councillors there are divisions, the deputy mayor was yester night noted to be forming a cartel that would suspend Works, Development and Real Estate committee chairperson Henry Kafumbe and his team from the meeting.

“Mr Kafumbe has become the target because he has already declared interest in the mayoral position. So Mr Kafumbe should have numbers in the council to ensure that he survives with his team and the mayor too needs numbers to survive,” he said.

The source accused the deputy mayor of being happy with the development because one of the councillors vying for the position of the deputy is in the camp of Mr Kafumbe.

He said the full council meeting may have sparks; the situation he said might attract the public to attend in masses.

The source said it would be important for the public to attend the full council meeting in order to question the credibility of the mayor and his councillors.

He said his fellow PF councilors were making the job of the Town Clerk and his fellow chief officers extremely difficult.

And Lands Minister Wylbur Simuusa has issued a warning that no one was above the law.

Mr Simuusa said that if the allegations were true then the culprits must be disciplined to remove the bad seed.

He said it was embarrassing that the land wrangles were happening in his home ground (constituency) when he had taken exceptional effort to educate the councillors on his Government stance over land.

The Minister said he had been going round the country sensitising councillors on the need to desist from illegal land allocation.

Mr Simuusa who is also Nchanga Member of Parliament said his appeal to councillors was for them to be different from the previous regime.