We did not sell Asian property, insist officials

Masaka. The Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (DAPCB) management has disowned role in the alleged sale of a prime property on Plot 9 Edward Avenue that currently houses the Masaka Resource Centre to a prominent businessman in Masaka Town.
Mr George William Bizibu, the executive secretary to DAPCB, the body set up by the government to oversee the properties and businesses left behind by the departed Asians, denied having sold the property.
The property is currently occupied by different users for re-development.
Mr Bizibu, however, said DAPCB is in the final process of verifying and validating the properties of the departed Asians countrywide.
“As we talk; the mentioned property is under the DAPCB and Masaka Municipal Council. Nobody should claim it. The private claimants are misinformed and misplaced,” he said.
“If we are to consider leasing the property, the sitting tenants take priority. We are undertaking reviews across the country for all the properties left behind by the Asians. We shall wait for a report from the working committee,” he said.

Background
The prime property in the central business district of Masaka Municipal Council is currently at the centre of ownership wrangle between the council authorities led by the mayor Mr Godfrey Kayemba Afaayo and Mr Emmanuel Lwasa who claims to have acquired it from DAPCB in 2016.
Mr Lwasa had given the sitting tenants 90 days to vacate the building so that he embarks on his redevelopment plan for a seven-storeyed commercial block.
“I started applying for ownership of the property which belonged to the Indians in 2016 and by 2017; the custodian board had granted me full powers to manage the building. I have more than 49 documents in support of the ownership. My lawyers only submitted 5 documents to the municipal mayor. I am surprised that the municipal council is still claiming ownership of this property despite all this evidence,” Mr Lwasa told Daily Monitor last week.

Council position
Mr Afaayo last month during a council session briefed the council lors of the emerging controversy surrounding the ownership of the property.
“As council; we shall not sit back and watch the property which we renovated after it was bombed and destroyed during the 1979 war being taken away. After renovation we handed over this property to Masaka Women League. We have also sought advice from the office of the solicitor general,” Kayemba told council last month.