Meanwood residents demanding roads, power and water as part of the deal.

A CONFLICT has ensued between property developers Meanwood and residents of its Ndeke and Vorna Valley estates.
The residents are demanding that the property developer must build them roads, provide power and water as part of the deal.
The property developer, on the other hand, says there has been a major “misunderstanding” because the roads, water and power the residents are demanding were never part of the deal from the start of the contract and all this data was contained in the brochures given to clients at sale.
The conflict has since sucked in Chongwe area member of Parliament Sylvia Masebo, who has in turn asked Meanwood to construct roads within two months based on the residents’ concerns.
Meanwood Property has, however, promised the residents that it will work with the government and the residents in order to amicably iron out the misunderstandings.
Meanwood head of corporate support Lillian Siwale via a phone interview yesterday said the company wants nothing but “warm working relations” with the government as it tries to create more jobs in line with the PF manifesto.
“Through the housing project, we have already created more than 1,000 Zambian jobs for ordinary Zambians who would otherwise have no jobs,” Ms Siwale said, “we have created plumbing jobs, brick-laying jobs, etc, as a contribution to our country’s economic development.”
Ms Siwale said: “The biggest up side to the project is the fact that the Chongwe [district] Council will increase its revenue earnings through rates collections in about two years once most of the houses are occupied.”
She said Meanwood will not seek special treatment in case it has done anything wrong but it shall continue to seek to work hard in order to grow the Zambian economy through job creation.
She restated that: “Roads, water and electricity were part of the deal [see advertisement] from the beginning…the clients were supposed to apply for those on their own. There has been a misunderstanding.”
Recently, some Meanwood clients complained to Ms Masebo about some alleged short comings in the Meanwood housing contracts.
In an interview, Meanwood Ndeke and Vorna Valley residents’ committee chairperson Michael Chileshe maintained that the residents needed roads.
“We want the definition of access roads to be fulfilled, which should be all-weather roads. The Chongwe District Council carried out an inspection of the roads in the area two months ago and it was discovered that 90 percent of the place is not passable,” he said.
Ms Siwale, on the other hand, said the company will do everything in its realm to ensure that there was a win win situation between the clients and the company.