Kitten from Malta and the flat on St John’s Square
When talk reached me before the general election that Kenneth Zammit Tabona had been promised a government flat on St John’s Square in Valletta, overlooking the cathedral, I put it down to ilsna hziena and dismissed it outright.
So many appalling things, rumours and lies are said about me that I tend to be cautious when assessing the things that are said about others.
But given the reliable first-hand reports coming at me from all sides that he has even recently been talking about his wish to move into a flat on St John’s Square, especially now that he has been made chairman of the Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee (a man who doesn’t understand the first thing about it) I decided it’s best to find out whether there actually is such a flat available.
Fortunately, it is one of the more pro-active Opposition MPs who was responsible for the Lands Department/housing in the last cabinet of government before this one – Jason Azzopardi. So all it took was a couple of telephone calls rather than climbing the walls with frustration over several days.
He told me that flat number two, block number one on St John’s Square – a very large flat looking directly onto the cathedral – has been vacant for some time. He also that throughout his tenure he was subjected to relentless pressure from various people, including a Nationalist (government) MP, to allocate it to social housing applicants.
He resisted that pressure and instead gave written instructions that the flat was not to be allocated for social housing at all, and that it should be leased out to the private market at commercial rates to provide income for the Treasury.
Dr Azzopardi said that he had the flat valued 18 months ago and that “at a very conservative estimate” the market price for outright sale was put at Eur250,000-Eur300,000. The rental rates were to be set accordingly.
“There was and is no justification for using property of that value, in that particular location, for social housing,” he told me. “Apart from the fact that this would not be a proper use of resources, financially, it would raise considerable ethical issues because the recipient of a social housing flat so valuable and in such a prestigious location would obviously be highly privileged over all others.”
In other words, it is the perfect prize in abusive situations of political favouritism and cronyism.
Let’s keep our eyes on that flat and its destiny, then. If anyone is running around Valletta today, and feels up to taking a picture (block number 1, St John’s Square; it’s the one facing you on the left of the square as you stand with your back to the cathedral), please email it to dcgalizia@gmail.com. Thank you.
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If Kenneth Zammit Tabona wants a flat in Valletta, he can ruddy well sell his flat in St Julian’s and buy one.
But I suspect the plan here is to live for free in a state flat while renting out his own flat in St Julian’s to augment his income and help pay for more houseboys.
That would be illegal. It is against the law to allocate a government flat to someone who already owns a house or any sort of immovable property.
Minn fejn igibuh z-zejt biex jidilku wicchom? He lived at the Hotel Phoenicia with his mother, at the expense of the state, while organising his Baroque Festival, so he’s quite capable of this.
Mank mar il-British Hotel.
Why on earth did he have to move into the Phoenicia? And why did his mother have to go with him?
Mummy’s boy
He takes her everywhere.
“Figlio degno di mamma” or ” mammone”.
And the country is (supposedly) run by yet another mummy’s boy.
Jason Azzopardi is absolutely right. There is no reason at all why prime property should be used as social housing. But then Labour is no stranger to that.
Look at the flats on top of City Gate – to my mind the one failure of the City Gate project was not removing them once and for all.
In any event, besides this logical argument, there is no reason at all why Kenneth Zammit Tabona should be given any form of government housing, wherever it may be. He certainly does not qualify for it.
He has his own well-appointed home already, and sufficient income for full-time servants.
He has also been given appointments he doesn’t deserve, and for which he is patently unqualified, already.
But then he wouldn’t have any respect for that would he – does anyone who ever bought a painting from Kenneth ever recall him giving a proper VAT receipt unless the purchase was made through another entity like Din L-art Helwa?
If making him the Chairman of the Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee is some form of desperate attempt to find justification as to why he should be given a government flat on St John’s Square – a grace and favour apartment for the chairman of that commission – it is a pathetic excuse indeed.
I never knew Kenneth to be such shameless leech. However, if he does take that or any other government property as his home, those who knew him in other days will have no option but to regard him as a parasite. Shame, shame, shame.
The problem with people like Kenneth is that they’re rapidly overtaken by time because they fail to evolve or develop in any way, either personally or creatively. His cartoons were sort of easy, twenty years ago.
Turning these into ‘paintings’, rows and rows of them, twenty years on, ridiculously priced, shows a reluctance to absorb life and its challenges.
All he did was establish his own predictable failure. He had a smallish number of interesting pieces lately, larger, the first hint of courage. Still, he chose to hide them away in a corner betraying his lack of faith in the viewer.
Trust him to drop into Joseph Muscat’s open arms.
He is now convinced that because ‘Joseph’ believes in him, he can deliver, irrespective of his abilities or the opinion of those who know far better than ‘Joseph’.
Just what did he do at Mid-Med Bank? Was he a teller? “Maaaaaaaaaaa hrigt short!”
I don’t think he was ever a teller – it’s a dirty job you see handling all that money. But he certainly rose swiftly through the ranks, riding on the tails of the other workers because he had the same seniority – only he got to do the cushy jobs.
Reminds me of a certain journalist turned prime minister.
I remember him as a clerk, which was in the same rank as a teller or cashier.
I will not comment on his work, as I’m not using my name. He rose in leaps and bounds under Nationalist administrations, but gratitude is not his forte, I would think.
Let’s just say his value lay mainly in keeping us well entertained with his anecdotes, silliness and frivolity. At least he was likeable during those years.
The Nationalist Party has a number of his paintings on the walls of their HQ. if they had any pride, they’d get rid of them.
Sounds like another Pink Mafia cushy job advancement for their own members deal.
Wasn’t he some sort of manager? Don’t have a clue what he knows about banking and business, but I guess his competition was weak.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona has certainly taken to socialism with great enthusiasm, petitioning for free flats and all.
Don’t know what you mean. Do you think that European governments go round dishing out flats?
It happend in Italy as well. Does anyone remember ‘Affittopoli” where apartments in historic and important areas/squares in Rome were handed out at dirt-cheap rent or for free?
Socialism is about the distribution of resources according to need rather than according to a misplaced sense of entitlement.
Insomma, saru nies Kenneth u ommu. Minn go toqba ta’ gebuba f’Strada Ghar Id-Dud tas-Sliema ghal appartament lussuz taht in-Nazzjonalisti u issa ghal appartament sabih fuq San Gwann b’kera baxxa taht il-labour.
X’tistenna? Mhux ta’ b’xejn li jaqleb mal-PL, bniedem bla sinsla bhal Kitten From Malta.
If Kenneth Zammit Tabona gets a flat across from St John’s Cathedral, soon Franco Debono will demand to become his neighbour. Similarly he will take his mother with him and get out of their Hal Ghaxaq abode.
Flora, fauna, fowl and all.
Chicken coops are not permitted in the building on St. John Square.
Trid tkun vera wiccek tost biex tippretendi flat tal-gvern f’prime site meta jkollok qaghda finanzjarja tajba u anke flat tieghek stess.
Jekk jiehu flat hemm, jien u xi ohrajn se napplikaw ghal wiehed ukoll. Naraw x’jghidulna tal-Housing.
If the apartment in question is given to KZT on the excuse that he is the chairman of the Valletta and Floriana rehabilitation committee, the flat becomes like the President’s residence, i.e., change of chairman, new chairman comes in, ex chairman goes out.
He was a teller in the 70s.
Not teller, darling, “raconteur”. Oh I see what you mean….
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081122/local/this-is-not-social-housing-dalli.234096
And so say all of us.
A super conservative estimate of the rental value, based on the capital value quoted here, is 12,000 – 15,000 euros per year. That would be the minimum expected ROI at current commercial rates.
The real value is likely to be considerably more, given the prestigious location within a city that now boasts a building by an internationally renowned architect. V18 will help inflate the price, if only temporarily, even though the project is now led by a narcissistic jerk rather than by the previous incumbent.
Appeasement was a huge factor in the downfall of Gonzi / PN administration.
One never appeases shallow, greedy and obnoxious individuals. One takes them heads on.
True. The main problem is that when you appease or favour individuals, you upset a hundred other leeches and countless decent folk too.
Even the scum you appease despise you as being weak. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Being from my area you must be aware of the likes of the Golden Bay/Paradise Bay lido operators who openly declared against the Gonzi administration despite being given a free rein to expand their concessions, illegally and extensively. But as soon as another operator was granted some leeway, it became dak il- l#*a Gonzi.
Mind you, the guy in question was the president of the PN Mellieha comittee for a number of years.
Apparently this summer, business was bad though in Paradise Bay.
At Mid Med most of the time he had a cushy job as personal assistant to the chairman, no doubt aided by his connections.
Impjegat ‘normali’, kollu posi u mutetti pero’ minghajr kwalifika wahda.
Dejjem jixtieq jilhaq pero qatt ma wasal bhal dawk li kienu kapaci ghax hu m’hux relevanti fil-professjoni.
B’xi qaddis irnexxiehu jsib xi nicca u dahhal imniehru, pero’ min imexxi gharaf bejn min hu vojt u min ta’ sustanza.
The photographer has kept Kenneth’s begging-bowl out of shot.
That block in Valletta, just in front of the co-cathedral, was heavily bombed into rubble during World War II and that is how these posh apartments came to be built on that same site after the war.