News | Sunday, 18 January 2009

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Magic politics: A kiosk out of the hat

From the days of its complete obliteration under Lorry Sant, to its restoration as a token gift to Slimizi angered by the construction frenzy unleashed under successive PN governments, Pjazza Sant’ Anna stands out as a milestone in Maltese political history

James Debono
Once upon a time, before it was enveloped by a sprawling turquoise aquarium-like restaurant, the square was adorned by a picturesque wooden kiosk, surrounded by ageing ficus trees, run by the Bonello family... who served Malta’s finest ruggjata to pedestrians in a bustling part of Sliema, also home to the Majestic, Alhambra and Plaza cinemas.
But one fine day, the Labour government decided to issue a public tender for the kiosk which at that time was rented for Lm 30 a year. Six weeks before their rent was due in 1974, the Bonellos received a letter from the Lands Department, telling them that they were to vacate the kiosk.
In an interview with The Malta Indpendent in 2002, the Bonello family recalled speaking to Minister Patrick Holland – then responsible for trade licences – who told them that it was time for somebody else to run the kiosk.
The Bonellos recalled that years later, on the morning after Holland’s death, they received an anonymous phone call informing them that the late Minister wished to tell them how “deeply sorry” he was for the way he had treated them, and asking them for forgiveness.
It was Joe Pace, whose family owned the The Brittania and Premier cafés in Valletta, who was to take over the kiosk after submitting the government an offer of Lm1,500 against the Bonello family offer of Lm50.

The Bonello story
Pace now claims that he was simply abiding by the rules by applying for a tender published in the government gazette.
But in their 2002 interview, the Bonellos claimed that Joe Pace actually went down to the kiosk while they were still running it, took measurements, and checked out their equipment before the call for tenders was issued.
They even claimed that plain-clothes policemen would stop at the kiosk to buy soft drinks, and then arrest the brothers for charging three cents and five mils when the price of a Kinnie at the grocer was mandated as two cents and three mils.
In 1992, the Commission for Injustices established that the Bonellos had suffered an injustice and ruled that compensation is due. But no compensation was ever offered to them.

Pace’s Faustian tale
The premises were given to Pace on the condition that he employed 22 full-time employees and four part-timers – a recipe for the destruction of the square, as it made the expansion of the kiosk inevitable.
Another kiosk, known as the Eros Kiosk, located in the same square, was awarded to Anthony Deguara & Sons at the same time.
In a letter sent to this newspaper Pace insists that he paid more than his fair share to get the kiosk.
“The Labour Government at the time, never gave us anything for nothing or as a gift. On the contrary, we did a favour to the government because we employed 40 people and invested Lm300,000 in the area,” Pace wrote.
Moreover, interviewed by MaltaToday in May 2002, Pace also revealed more saucy details on how the late Lorry Sant asked him to pay an extra Lm 25,000 to start operations.
According to Pace’s version of events the magic kiosk turned out to be a Faustian offer which caused him more pain than gain. For after investing Lm180,000 and having already employed all the staff, he was stopped from operating the premises.
Concerned, he visited Patrick Holland, by then responsible for the Lands Department. Holland told him he had nothing to do with the order to stop works at the Magic Kiosk, and directed him to Works Minister Lorry Sant.
“Do not even dare open your premises,” he told Joe Pace.
Some time later, Lorry Sant informed him that he could open his premises. The Magic Kiosk was inaugurated in August 1974. Out of courtesy, Pace claims to have purchased a silver teapot set as a present for Lorry Sant.
Lorry Sant’s reaction was instantaneous: “A teapot? This is not what I expected. Get me Lm25,000, if you do not wish me to kick you off your site. You have a week.”
Joe Pace claims that he got his Lm25,000 from the Bank of Valletta against security of his catering establishments.
“From that day, a noose was placed around my neck,” he said.
And because he had catering establishments on government property, he felt constantly threatened. Over a period of 20 years, Joe Pace estimates that he was robbed of Lm600,000.
Pace claimed that he was forced to form companies involved in property speculation with Piju Camilleri, Lorry Sant’s henchman. He even recalled a stormy meeting between Piju Camilleri and Lino Cauchi over a document that the latter presented. Joe Pace recalled that when Cauchi left, Piju Camilleri passed the ominous comment, “Just wait until they get him.”
Lino Cauchi disappeared in February 1982 and his dismembered remains were found in a well at Buskett three years later.
In January 1995 a bomb was placed outside the Magic Kiosk in Sliema. Police investigations led nowhere but Piju Camilleri was called in for questioning. When testifying in front of Magistrate Silvio Meli, Piju Camilleri told the magisterial inquiry that he could not understand how Joe Pace identified him as a prime suspect when on the very same morning they had been eating together.

A symbol of 1980s resistance
The Magic Kiosk became talk of the town again in the early 1980s when the Nationalist Party organised a boycott against those that advertised on Xandir Malta, the precursor of PBS, Malta’s national TV station.
The boycott was part of a wave of civil disobedience that the Nationalist party started at the time in protest at the 1981 election result, and because of the erosion of human rights during that turbulent period.
Given the high incidence of Nationalist supporters in Sliema, the boycott had damaging effects on Pace’s business.
Yet the Magic Kiosk survived and prospered to the extent that when, in 1997, Anthony Deguara & Sons gave up their concession in the same square, Pace was able to take their part of the lease, claiming that he paid Lm30,000 for the concession.
But the kiosk was also the subject of further judicial troubles as the banks tried to seize the assets of the company owning the kiosk.
In 2005 Joseph Pace had to file a case to stop the judicial sale of the Magic Kiosk. The kiosk was seized by Bank of Valletta as part of the assets of Brittania Catering Ltd, which runs the kiosk, ordering the sale by judicial auction of the Magic Kiosk. The bank was demanding Lm250,000 from the company.

Redemption
By December 2008 when the lease on the other part of the land had expired, the Nationalist government had a simple decision to make; either renew Pace’s lease or to let it expire.
It now transpires that part of the lease had already expired in 2004, but no attempt was made to evict Pace.
It was only after the election which saw GonziPN elected on a green platform, that the government showed that it really meant business.
In July 2008, the Lands Department filed a judicial protest over the lease claiming that one of the contracts had expired in 2004 and that Pace had failed to evacuate the area.
Pace was also asked to vacate the square before the December 2008 when the other lease expired.
The Malta Environment and Planning Authority subsequently approved an application presented by the government to remove the kiosk which, along with other structures, occupies a large part of St Anne Square overlooking the Ferries.
Pace claimed that he was a victim of political discrimination because other similar leases had been renewed, and has instituted proceedings in court to stop the demolition of the Magic Kiosk.
But this was to no avail as government bulldozers started pulling down the Magic Kiosk at 5.30am on 9 January... only to be stopped by Mr Justice Valenzia a week later who accepted an injunction against the Lands Department, presented by Britannia Ltd.
The court will be taking a final decision on this case in 21 January.
Curiously, Minister George Pullicino – the Minister responsible for Resources and Rural Affairs – has taken paternity of the government’s decision to vacate the square, appearing next to parliamentary secretary Jason Azzopardi, who is actually responsible for government property, at a press conference.
Pullicino claims that he has been working on this endeavour since 2005, when he occupied the planning portfolio. Blamed by many Slimizi, especially in Qui-Si-Sana, for the construction frenzy which obliterated the Sliema and Tigne skyline, the restoration of Pjazza Sant Anna to its former glory may serves well to rehabilitate Pullicino’s name among his 10th District constituents.

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