Rights activists have threatened to take the Blantyre City Council (BCC) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to court over the sale of the Blantyre Mayor’s house.
The activists Timothy Mtambo and Gift Trapence are demanding details of the sale of the house by 3rd of September, 2018, and have threatened that they will be forced to drag the two institutions to court.
In a letter addressed to DPP Secretary General and BCC chief executive officer, Mtambo and Trapence say the DPP used part of the controversial K145 million to buy the house.
“Our clients strongly believe that the money used to make this purchase is tainted, illegal and came from a series of dubious transactions. The whole sale process, therefore, our clients believe, amount to money laundering of proceeds of crime,” says the letter.
It adds that the “sale stinks of corruption, unfair favouring of one political party, money laundering, breach of public trust and breach of public procurement laws.”
The activists have since asked the council and the DPP to explain if public procurement procedures were followed in the transaction and whether there was any undue influence on the part of the city council to offer the house to the DPP and no one else.
They also want the deal to be cancelled if it is verified that the DPP used part of the donation from Pioneer Investments to buy the house.
Why selling a council house? DPP are you failing to build your own house? Is a new house for the mayor already built? Does the deputy mayor already have a house?