Both Costain Chilala and Munakupya Hantuba have refused to officially comment over allegations that they have illegally acquired shares in Mazabuka’s Kaleya Small holders Company limited – KASCOL which has resulted in six families being evicted and expelled from the estate.
Chilala who is of Chimsoro Commercial Farms proprietor as well as board Chairman for Kaleya Smallholder Company limited-KASCOL and Hantuba who is a business executive associated with Aflife Financial services have had wrangles with the smallholder farmers over unfair share allocations by the two.
When contacted by the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Chilala said “I don’t go into newspapers myself over those things, that business thing is for the company [KASCOL] not for me”, he stated before abruptly cutting the call. He stated hungrily that he shouldn’t be enticed into press discussions without obtaining permission from the board.
Further efforts to engage his counterpart Muna Hantuba on the same matter proved futile by press time as he claimed to be help up in meetings. Hantuba was initially tipped as the best pick for Finance Minister under the Hichilema presidency but was passed over for the more experience Situmbeko Musokotwane.
Some of the affected families and other concerned Kaleya estates residents have told the Zambian Business Times that both Chilala and Hantuba are using their connections to high offices in the current government to push out all small holder farmers that are opposed to what they have described as illegal share grabbing.
The small holder farmers have also told ZBT that their efforts to take the matter to the area member of parliament and local government minister Garry Nkombo has not yielded any progress. The small holder farmers stated that the local government minister also confirmed that he can not help them and challenged them to go to court, a process which requires lawyers whom they can not afford to hire as court cases take long to settle.
