TWO church elders of Lubuto Christian Brethren Church (CMML) have found themselves before the local court after they reclaimed a piece of land the church sold to a Ndola woman. Robert Nkombo, 42, and Edward Musamba, 42, of Lubuto Township, have been accused of reclaiming the land belonging to Ms Mary Zulu, 45, of Kopaland area which she bought from the church in 2016.

According to her evidence before Kabushi Local Court senior magistrate Agness Mulenga, the two defendants are demanding that she vacates the land on which the two defendants are spearheading a project. Ms Zulu narrated before court that in 2016, CMML church approached her husband that they were selling part of their land and he bought it for her at K18,000.

“We were even given a letter of offer and all the necessary documents, the ones that represented the church were the CMML former elders and some members who signed as witnesses,” she said. Ms Zulu said it was shocking that the church through its current elders told her that they were not aware about the sale of the piece of land. And in their testimony, former CMML elder Steven Mwepu, 57, a resident of Lubuto Township, narrated how the church sold the piece of land to Ms Zulu.

“Our land was very big and the council was always coming at the church to demarcate it because we did not have a proper structure, so we decided as a church to sell part of the land so that we can build a proper church structure and also do other projects, so that we don’t lose the land to the council, “ Mr Mwepu said. He said that elder Musamba was a church deacon at the time of the sale and also agreed to the decision.

“We approached the council and they gave us a go-ahead and a plan on how to demarcate, and we came up with four plots which we sold to people and Ms Zulu was one of the people who bought,” he said. And another former elder, Reinfold Mutiti, 72, also testified before the court that the current elders did not bother to go through the church’s records adding that all the church meetings and procedures were documented. In their defence, Mr Nkombo told the court that the case was already taken to the Ndola magistrate court and the court ruled that the land was illegally sold. “These former elders were crooks, they sold the land without the church being aware.

When they appealed the magistrate’s ruling to High Court, again they lost the case and we have the ruling of the High Court. It was also established that they illegally sold the land,” Mr Nkombo said. He told the court that the three elders who illegally sold the land are the ones who are going to refund the four people who bought the land. Mr Musamba further said the church was not aware of the transactions and how the money was spent. “We have told Ms Zulu to deal with these same people and get back her money.

The church is not involved, these former elders are full of lies, we have approached them to discuss this issue they never show up and the council has refused that the plan they had was fake, they are responsible, “ Musamba said. Magistrate Mulenga adjourned the case to a later date.