|
|
Zambia: Solwezi Councillors Take Mayor to Task
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
7 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
Ndola
CONFUSION has rocked Solwezi Municipal Council where councillors are calling for Mayor Emmanuel Chihili to be dropped for alleged inefficiency in the execution of his duties.
The councillors have also demanded that Town Clerk, Jim Zya and his acting director of engineering, Godfrey Malasha be sent on forced leave to pave way for investigations into alleged illegal land allocation.
The confusion heightened on Monday afternoon when Mr Zya and Mr Chihili, tried to cancel a council meeting because councillors wanted to move the motion to take action against them and the director of engineering.
North-Western Province Permanent Secretary, Jeston Mulando intervened and directed that the meeting goes ahead so that matters from the previous meeting could be concluded.
Mr Mulando said that what was happening at the local authority could force him to recommend that the council be suspended.
The permanent secretary drove to the council to check on what was happening after receiving reports that the meeting was not taking off despite councillors forming a quorum.
Mr Mulando learnt that the mayor had taken some councilors to court over the differences.
He took Mr Zya and Mr Chihili to task for not convening the meeting and dragging some councillors to court.
He told the town clerk and the mayor that their roles were to provide counsel and direction to the council and not to antagonise councilors.
"I am giving you one day to resolve the differences and I also want you the mayor to withdraw the case from the court. You don't take individuals to court for a decision made collectively by the council.
"People of Solwezi want to see development but you are holding them to ransom," Mr Mulando said.
This was after Mr Zya had admitted that he could not convene the meeting because councillors had intended to include on the agenda a motion to suspend him and also have the mayor dropped.
According to a circular from the council obtained by the Times, Mr Chihili allegedly failed to avail full information to councillors in order for them to make informed decisions.
The councillors have also accused Mr Chihili of protecting erring officers by preventing councillors from carrying out investigations on illegal land allocations.
|
"This has led to speculation that there could be some vested interest. Subsequently we propose that the Town Clerk Mr Zya and acting director of engineering Mr Malasha be put on forced leave," reads part of the circular.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
