By: Kelvin Chiringa
Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) leader Dr Panduleni Itula directed the party’s Kalkrand chairperson, Simeon Martin, to prevent acting chief executive officer Johannes Kaulihowa from entering his work premises.
Itula has also directed Martin to stop interfering with the conduct of Kaulihowa’s official duties.
This comes after chaos erupted at the village council, where Simeon went on a rampage, rallying people to get land for free.
He has accused the acting CEO of dragging his feet in allocating land, which in turn has accused him of usurping the powers of the administrative arm.
But Kaulihowa has reported the IPC politician to his principal, Dr Itula, who has also directed that Martin should report to the office of the IPC National General Secretary on Friday.
The orders are said to be in terms of Article 4.52.4 of the IPC Constitution.
This is contained in a communication seen by The Villager and provided by Kaulihowa.
The situation has come to a head that the chairperson has been accused of verbally assaulting Kaulihowa.
He said his staff failed to enter their offices Thursday afternoon due to a misunderstanding.
“The chairperson of the council is interfering with administration by way of allocating townland without due procedure as per the Local Authority Act. Today (Thurs), I took a team to go on the ground to verify if there were people to who the chairperson allocated pieces of land without due procedure, and we found out that he has allocated people who have put structures there.
“I also managed to communicate with the people that were allocated those pieces of land, and they indicated that the chairperson of the council did it,” he said.
Kaulihowa said the chairperson also dished out land on a government farm in the area.
“What is happening here is that the chairperson is doing administration on our behalf, and it has come out clear today that he is going to allocate land to people for free, to grab land and that he is going to give people on townland water for free,”
he said.
Martin has shot back and slammed the Acting CEO for failing to fast track the land allocation process.
He told The Villager that he had told the people to help themselves to available tracks of land free of charge.
“I did not give people land. I told people to get the land while waiting for procedures because we could not wait nine months for him. Our people need land. In Kalkrand, we have been suffering for years, and we can’t suffer while I am the chairperson here.
“I didn’t tell people to grab land. That’s not land grabbing. I told them, while the land is there and while they are applying, people cannot stay in shacks while they can build homes for themselves,” he said.
He has been accused of mobilizing people to demonstrate against the council this Friday.
He denied this, stating that he was giving them his moral support.
“We have been waiting on him just to come up with a plan on how to deal with this matter for people to get land. They elected me as a member of the council to represent them, I need to follow their instruction to remove the acting CEO from office, and if I do not do that, then they will remove me,” he said.
Meanwhile, Martin said he has no personal issues with the acting CEO.
