Ndola plot applicants riled by interviews’ slow pace
APPLICANTS for Dola Hill plots attending interviews at Ndola City Council (NCC), have complained about the slow pace of the selection process. The applicants complained that confusion characterised the slow process with suspected agents trying to cash in on the situation by promising to quicken the process for any applicant willing to pay them. Some people who had been queuing up for the interviews as early as 07:00 hours for plots in Ndola have called for a faster system as the civic centre continued teeming with residents on the second day of the process yesterday. One of the applicants, Ms Faith Bwalya, complained that she was not sure she would be interviewed today despite being on the queue from 07:00 hours. Ms Bwalya said the Ndola City Council should have constituted more interview panels to expedite the process as people needed to get back to their work places. Mr Joseph Chilekwa, another applicant, said the process was frustrating and tiresome as the queue was hardly moving. “This is very frustrating. The process is unnecessarily slow and they should have had many panels to speed up the process. I work for a private company and was only given only one hour to be here,” Mr Chilekwa complained. He said the slow pace of interviews had given an opportunity to suspected middle men who were trying to cash in from the confusion. “Some middle men are trying to take advantage of the situation by promising they could speed up things for you if you paid them,” Mr Chilekwa said. But Council Public Relations Manager, Tilyenji Mwanza, said they had included officers from the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to ensure there was transparency in the process. Ms Mwanza also appealed to residents not to pay money to any agent or individual council employees claiming they could assist them. The council has demarcated 1, 000 plots and invited 2, 000 applicants for interviews which were monitored by DEC and ACC officers.