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A GROUP of ruling PF supporters has vowed not to move out of a piece of land which has a title registered in the names of Lands and Natural Resources minister Jean Kapata claiming it is their share. The group led by Joseph Lungo has accused Kapata of being selfish and using her position to grab the land from them using officials who they say they will expose if pushed too far. In an interview, Lungo, backed by others who are equally vowing to be killed if all goes to the worst, asked President Edgar Lungu to intervene in the matter before it gets out of hand. “I stand here and complain about what has happened in the Forest 27. We are the ones that initiated the degazettion of Forest 27, we wrote an appointment letter to honourable Jean Kapata and on 23rd February 2017, she wrote to the commissioner of lands to look into the matter,” Lungo said. “The commissioner quickly guided us. We even have the letters we wrote. Mr George Sindila is the one who responded to us for the commissioner. We went and saw the surveyor general before going to the council and he wrote a recommendation for cancellation of lot 6497/M situated in Forest 27 Lusaka East.” “After this letter which we took to the council, and the procedure was followed until we took the document back to the ministry, we reached the extent degazettion of Forest 27. 64 hectors which is just part of it was degazzeted and they divided the land into 110 plots and we were asked to submit names of the people we were working with which we did but they shared all the plots.” Lungo said his group was then advised to have a concise list. “Honourable Jean Kapata had a list of 30 people who she shared the plots with. We went back to Mr. Sindila. We were told our list was too long and we adjusted it and waited for the way forward but we discovered all the plots were all gone. When we asked, we were told it’s national interest. But what is surprising about this national interest is that while these national interest guys did not apply for this land. They only came in after he had secured the land,” he says. “The President is the one who asked us to look for land and follow procedure in acquiring it but that wasn’t the case. We went back to the lands commissioner who advised us that we should look for alternative means to resolve the matter which we failed to find. We wrote another complaint letter to the commissioner and copied it to the President so that maybe we could be heard and the minister Jean Kapata can have mercy on us but we suspect that letter was blocked and the President never saw it.” Lungo said his team applied to the commissioner to be allocated the market space but they were duped.
“When we saw that there was no way out, we decided that since there is land left for a market, maybe they could allocate us part of the land but to our surprise, even the same land, they allocated to themselves and when we checked, the land had been put under the name Jean Kapata and a title deed had been issued,” he adds. “We wondered what kind of a parent we had been complaining to because instead of helping us, she got the land herself. The whole three hectors she got. This is selfishness and she used her position to get the land which we found and fought for.” The group accused Kapata of harming the party and trying to make it tough for them to win elections next year. “We vow that we will not give up on this land. If she wants, let her come and kill us. We have since come onto the land and started developing it. We have no other properties like her, she is just being selfish,” Lungo charged. “We have seen that she is in that office to help herself, she is not there to help the people, she is only aiming at destroying the reputation of the PF party and the President because this party is ours, we are the ones who vote people into and out of positions and time is coming. She has been sending police officers o harass us for the past five days. We want the President to hear us because this woman is not helping in any way because she is decampaigning the party with her actions ahead of 2021.” Lungo said: “we know the people they used to do all these deals. They should not force us to disclose a lot of things. Even those who want to come and bring down our structures, please follow the procedure, the thief who has stolen land from us is the one crying foul and going to the police.” But when contacted for a comment, Kapata cut the line when this reporter introduced himself as a Mast Newspapers journalist. After being phoned again, Kapata asked what the problem was before saying she did not have any comment after this reporter introduced himself. Reporter: Afternoon madam minister, my name is Tobias…
Kapata: Tobias from where? Reporter: Tobias from The Mast Newspaper
Kapata: Tobias, what is your problem? Reporter: I have a story which I need your comment on.
Kapata: What is the story? Reporter: the story is about some people who claim you have duped them in Forest 27.
Kapata: I have no comment to make. I have no comment to make. No. I have no comment to make because I don’t give land myself. I have no comment to make. Reporter: They say you used your position to get that land and dupe them.
Kapata: I have told you, I have no comment. Thank you very much.
[The Mast Online]
