Mayor ready to evict Newport View on government’s go-ahead

Male’ City Mayor Shifa Mohamed has said that she is ready to evict Newport View when the government gives the go-ahead.

In mid-March, the government gave the owner of the waterfront restaurant in Male’ a one-month notice to vacate the land for failure to pay the MVR 100,000 monthly rent for three months.

However, the restaurant still remains after the deadline. Speaking to RaajjeMV on Saturday, Mayor Shifa said that the government has not yet ordered the city council to evict the business.

The Mayor also said that the previous government had unlawfully given land in Male’ to various businesses and that this has caused various legal issues in the current administration’s work to take back the land.

She added that the government wants to heed the citizens’ wish to make the land a public space.

In 2016, the previous government leased the 10,000 square foot plot in the capital's south-eastern side to Strada Private Limited, the parent company of Newport View, for an eight-year period.

The agreement states that the government has the authority to take back the plot if the company fails to pay rent.

The Anti-Corruption Commission investigated Strada in 2015, after it was awarded the catering for the official Independence Day banquet that year despite not having the experience to cater for such an event.

Newport View’s former director Zahid Rameez has also faced various allegations, and has since handed over the company’s management to his wife. Three recent events to be hosted at the restaurant were cancelled following public outrage over the allegations against the company and Zahid, over death threats he made against blogger Yameen Rasheed, who was murdered in April 2017.