I WAS UNDER PRESSURE TO FIND LAND FOR PF SECRETARIAT – JUDGE
DISMISSED High Court Judge Wilfred Muma testified that while working at the Ministry of Lands, he received several “knocks” from Patriotic Front (PF) members who wanted land for construction of their secretariat.
Mr Muma narrated that among the people who queried him over the land in 2018 included then Vice-President Inonge Wina and ex- Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Jean Kapata.
“Madam Inonge Wina… also expressed concerns over the delay in allocating land
to build the PF secretariat, among other things I discussed with her.
“There were numerous knocks from officers sent from PF secretariat and mostly from the minister [of Lands], then Honourable Jean Kapata, on my door to find this piece of land.
“Honourable Jean Kapata would call me [saying] ‘you haven’t found land. We are under pressure’,” the former Commissioner of Lands narrated.
He earlier told a panel of three judges that sometime in late 2017 or early 2018, he received a letter from the then governing PF, which applied for a piece of land.
ZDM
Too bad. This evidence doesn’t justify why he had to do a wrong thing of cancelling a title deed belonging to the Government and re issuing a new one to a political party. Pressure to find land is not synonymous to illegality. How many title deeds would he have cancelled to please the political elites? No wonder we had serious challenges with land administration during the PF reign.
Gentlemen resign when they are being pressured to do illegal things. But Oh, for the love of money!
This kind of nonsense the courts can not accept.
Just accept yowa jail sentence and move on with a little more wisdom than you had before.
This is a very interesting bu sad revelation by Wilfred Muma: what should civil servants such as this former Lands Commissioner and later judge do when they come under pressure from the governing party? I hope the Law Association of Zambia is paying attention to this case so that future law reform finds a way of protecting such public officers. The PF didn’t even need the land because they sold it for profit after getting it in a dubious way.
But is that the reason why he wanted to do something on himself in Barotseland? I am sorry if he is not the one.
Now you buckled under pressure instead of doing the right thing thats why you are paying for your mistake today.