National Democratic Party leader Martin Lukato has taken the Katima Mulilo Town Council (KMTC) and resident Doreester Mwangala Chasunda to court over a property dispute.
According to documents filed at the High Court of Namibia in 2021, Lukato Is claiming that in 2009 the town council transferred ownership of his property, without his knowledge to Chasunda.
“During the year 1989 Plaintiff (Lukato) was the lawful occupant of then Erf 736, now Erf 796 New Look, Mavuluma, Zambezi region, which property was allocated to the Plaintiff (Lukato) in his capacity as a police officer of the Ministry of Works in Katima Mulilo. During the year 2009 1st Defendant (KMTC) transferred ownership of the said property to the 2nd Defendant (Chasunda) without the knowledge or consent of the Plaintiff,” stated the documents. In addition, Lukato claims he was not offered the first option to purchase the property under the government alienation scheme. “As the registered occupant of the said property, Plaintiff was entitled to be offered and exercise first option to purchase the said property under the government alienation scheme,” claimed Lukato.
In his particulars of claim the politician is pleading with the High Court to declare the sale and registration of the property into Chasunda’s name invalid.“An order declaring the agreement of sale between KMTC and Chasunda to be invalid and an order declaring the registration of Erf 796 into the name of Chasunda to be invalid,” read the claim. Furthermore, he wants the court to order that KMTC to allocate a similar plot to him at no costor pay him an equivalent amount of the value of the property that was alienated.
