UPND Councilor’s theft case closed

THE State has closed its case against United Party for National Development (UPND) Kanyama Ward 10 Councilor Brighton Bilumba. Bilumba, 39, the only UPND Councilor in Lusaka City, is charged for alleged theft of K53, 600. by public servant, contrary to Sections 272 and 277 of the Penal Code Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia. He has been accused of including ghost

beneficiaries on the

list of Kanyama Ward Development Committee (WDC) members engaged by Lusaka City Council (LCC) to distribute ground rent bills in the ward from 2014 to March 2016. The State closed its case against Bilumba yesterday after LCC Director of Finance Beston

Kajoba testified as the last

prosecution witness. Mr. Kajoba said before 2016, the council engaged WDCs in various wards to help the local authority in the distribution of ground rent bills, paid quarterly by residents who have council title deeds in peri-urban areas. He said this was because LCC did not have capacity to deliver the 90,000 bills, adding that there was an arrangement to pay WDCs a commission of between 5 and 10 percent of the actual amounts realised from ground rent. “We were in arrears and we had not paid the commissions from 2014 to March 2016 when Parliament was dissolved and the WDCs ceased to exist. There was need to pay these commissions in all 33 wards because revenue collection from ground rent had gone down. “We started paying in November last year and in December I received a request for payment

from the office of the area

Councilor for Kanyama Ward. The amount we calculated as a percentage of what was collected from 2014 to March 2016 in Kanyama was K79, 970.70. We have a policy not to pay cash but to send the moneys to beneficiaries via

e- wallet. Because I was satisfied with what was

submitted, I instructed my accountants to proceed with the payment on 22nd December, 2017,” Mr. Kajoba said. The court has since set December 5, 2018 as the date for ruling on whether or not Bilumba has a case to answer.