By RABECCA CHIPANTA  and STEPHANIE KUNDA –
FOUR Ndola City Council (NCC) employees have been apprehended for allegedly locking up the local authority offices in the early hours of Monday to protest delayed salary payments.
Ndola Mayor Amon Chisenga named the employees as Nalcom Mupimpila, a senior systems analyst (management position), Warren Sinyangwe, a clerical officer under the department of city planning, Bright Sinkala, a driver and Boyd Sachikwata, a council police constable.
Mr Chisenga said the quartet had been picked up to assist with investigations and establish the motive behind their alleged action.
“Following locking up of council gates which took place on Monday around 01:00 hours, police picked these people for investigations to ascertain their involvement and why they did what they did. It is purely to do with investigations and we are not saying they have been found with a case,” Mr Chisenga said.
Asked whether the locking up of the council premises was prompted by the delayed salaries, Mr Chisenga said it was important to note that the local authority was highly indebted.
He said the city council was only in operation because it was not a corporation but a Government institution.
Mr Chisenga said looking at the huge debt owed through various court cases, terminal benefits and statutory obligations to institutions such as the Local Authorities Superannuation Fund, National Pensions Scheme Authority and the Zambia Revenue Authority, the council could already have been liquidated or declared insolvent.
The council owes to the tune of K600 million.
“We are running because we are a Government institution. The level of indebtedness cannot be solved by this council alone at the moment. This is why we thought it important that the TC goes to Lusaka to sit with the ministry to see how the council can come out of this mess,” Mr Chisenga said.
A source at the council said the workers were angered by the continued delay by the financially troubled NCC to pay them, and last week staged a protest.
The source said the workers had planned to hold a second round of protests over the delayed three and 14-month salary arrears for permanent and casual employees, but this was called off after a deployment of police officers on Monday.