Mahtani Firm Demolishes Properties on Baobab Land Plots
By Mwebe Mbewa
Kwikbuild Construction Limited, a company belonging to Dr Rajan Mahtani’s Holdings, has demolished properties on plots on Lusaka’s Baobab Land, which were sold by Denny Nyoni.
Some Lusaka residents bought plots from Denny Nyoni despite several warnings that his claim that his late mother, Violet Nyoni, had bought the land from the Van Blerk family, had been dismissed on three separate times by the courts.
The plots are on part of the disputed land that makes up Farm 4300, Lusaka, also known as Baobab Land, which has been subject of court litigation for more than three decades. Kwikbuild Construction is a party to the case still in court.
Original owner of Farm 4300, Jonathan Van Blerk seeks to void the compulsory acquisition of part his land because the State later gave the same land to private companies, including Dr Mahtani’s Kwikbuild, contrary provision is of law on land acquisition.
Van Blerk’s submissions in the court record centre on the fact that in his initial challenge of the compulsory acquisition, the Attorney General submitted in court that the action was justified because the land was required for Lusaka City Council to build a housing estate complex. But after the court ruled in favour of the State because of this justification, the same land was allocated to private companies, Kwikbuild, and Mohamad Salama’s Bantu Capital Corporation. Bantu later sold some of the land to the National Pensions Schemes Authority (NAPSA). Because of this, Van Blerk has been seeking to overturn the High Court judgement which ruled that the compulsory acquisition was justified, on account that this submission later turned out to be fraudulent misrepresentation, in the light of allocation of the land to private entities, instead of the Lusaka City Council.
The case in currently in the Supreme Court, by Order of Justice Roydah Kaoma, where the full bench is due to determine whether to hear Van Blerk’s appeal against a decision of the Court of Appeal which agreed with High Court Judge Sharon Newa that he had not proved there was fraud at the instance of compulsory acquisition, disregarding the fact of the said alleged fraudulent misrepresentation having crystallised after the initial court judgements on the justification for the compulsory acquisition.
But while the matter is pending before the Supreme Court, Kwikbuild, which is part of this action, has moved in to demolish properties built on the part of the land it was given by the State, some of which Denny Nyoni has been selling illegally.
Kwikbuild’s action is based on an Order of Summary Possession of property granted to the company by Judge Sharon Newa dated 15th November, 2024.
Early Saturday morning, some of properties built on plots sold through a company run by Denny Nyoni were demolished, leaving mainly those built on land that Nyoni sold earlier, where a school was built by the Lebanese community.
But on the same day the demolitions started, Denny Nyoni and All Unknown Occupiers were granted an Ex-parte Order directing that executioner the Order for Summary Possessiin of Property granted on 14th November, 2024 be stayed pending hearing of an application to set aside the Order for Possession in default of appearance and defence.
This means one of the private companies which benefited from compulsory acquisition of part of Baobab Land, and has been conte ding with original owner Jonathan Van Blerk, is now fighting on the side with “squatters” brought in by Denny Nyoni.
Bantu Capital, on the other hand, seems to have circumvented the encumberance of the court case by using a “partner” Lamasat to construct a shopping mall on its part of the land.
When Napsa also tried to continue construction on the disputed land, Van Blerk sought, and was granted an injunction by the Supreme Court. This is why it is surprising that whereas the injunction has stopped Napsa from proceeding with construction, Bantu Capital, through Lamasat, has continued building on the land.
The long running saga over Baobab Land started in 1987 when the government issued notice to compulsorily acquire part of Farm 4300, which has been in the possession of the Van Blerk family since the 1920s.
Current owner Jonathan Van Blerk challenged the action in court, it was during this initial action that the Attorney General submitted that the land was required for LCC to build houses for civil servants, and also give residential plots to civil servants and other needy residents of Lusaka. It was on the strength of this submission that the High Court ruled in favour of the State. When Van Blerk appealed to the Supreme Court, the High Court’s decision was upheld.
But shortly afterwards Van Blerk learned that the same land compulsorily acquired from him was ultimately allocated to private companies, Dr Mahtani’s Kwikbuild Construction, and Salama’s Bantu Capital Corporation, which later sold portiins to Nyimba Investments and Napsa. This led him to conclude that the submission by the Attorney General regarding justification for this particular compulsory acquisition amounted to fraudulent misrepresentation, on both the courts and himself, to merely defeat his challenge of the action.
It is for this reason that he has relentlessly pursued this action through the courts, culminating in the matter reaching the Supreme Court once again. This is because of one specific reason. The length of the litigation notwithstanding, the central issue of fraudulent misrepresentation has not been resolved:
It is whether the discovery that “it later turned out the land was not used for the stated public purpose”, but given to private companies for their own profit, amounts to fraudulent misrepresentation, intended or not, and that this is what was perpetrated on Van Blerk and the High Court and Supreme Court when they presided over his initial challenge against the compulsory acquisition of part of his Farm 4300, Baobab Land.
This is the matter singular most significant issue the Supreme Court needs to resolve in the interests of all landowners and investors in Zambia.
Credit: THE MAST
