Livingstone mayor fired

THE Livingstone City Council has impeached its mayor Milford Maambo and demoted acting town clerk Chabala Chanda for their alleged involvement in illegal land allocation.
The decision was reached on Saturday during a full council meeting which considered a report from a seven-man adhoc committee constituted to investigate alleged illegal allocation of 18 plots by Mr Maambo and Mr Chanda.
The acting mayor, Fred Sikazwe, who chaired the special full council meeting, told journalists in Livingstone that councillors had resolved to impeach Mr Maambo, who is United Party for National Development (UPND) Simoonga ward councillor.
Mr Sikazwe explained that Mr Maambo and his Mosi-oa-Tunya ward counterpart Ziwa Malilo Ziwa have been suspended for six months from council business.
“The full council meeting that was held today (Saturday) was to receive the findings of the adhoc committee. The council resolved that the mayor should be relieved of his duties,” he said.
On the fate of former town clerk, Mr Sikawze said the councillors have made recommendations to the Local Government Service Commission for further action against Mr Chanda.
“Mr Chanda has gone back to his position of director for social services and Mr Levis Mumba from Ndola has replaced him in an acting capacity,” he said.

Mr Sikazwe said according to council standing orders, councillors will convene within seven days to select a new mayor for the city.
“We shall write to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing over the resolution of the council,” he said.
Mr Sikazwe said despite the irregularity in the distribution of land, the Ministry of Lands needs to be considerate because some of the people who bought the plots in question are retirees and single mothers.
“I hope that the minister of Lands will be considerate, but I want to urge people in Livingstone to follow the right procedure when acquiring land,” he said.
The seven-man adhoc committee of councillors that was investigating the matter comprised Philemon Musonda, Likando Liswani, Stanley Ngoma, and Saxon Simachembele; all from UPND; Mathews Jere and Friday Nkonde, both from the MMD; and Moses Simbaya of the PF.
It is alleged that Mr Maambo and Mr Chanda irregularly shared over 18 plots in the Highlands residential area near Tandabale market.
Meanwhile, police officers had a tough time to restrain UPND cadres that had camped at the Livingstone Civic Centre in solidarity with the impeached mayor. The irate cadres wanted to beat Zambezi ward councillor Philemon Musonda, who they initially blocked from entering the council chamber until police intervened.
They charged that Mr Musonda issued a statement in the media incriminating the impeached mayor that he had allegedly obtained more than 18 plots.
“You should stop issuing media statements, just cross over to the PF. The UPND president has spent a lot of money to build this party you want to destroy,” an unidentified cadre said.

ZambiaDailyMail