The move by RDA to redesign the Chingola-Solwezi road into a dual-carriage way is welcome.
This has been long overdue and it is my prayer that the contractors would do a good job. Government must try by all means to complete the Chingola-Solwezi road so that at last, the people of north-western province can join the country in enjoying a good road network. The Chingola-Solwezi dual carriage way will also help to decongest the road and reduce road traffic accidents.
In the same vein, contractors on the Chingola-Chililabombwe dual carriageway must do a good job.
The road is crucial to the people of Chililabombwe as it will ease traffic congestion between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) we are expecting the contractors to employ local people of Chingola and Chililabombwe and the people of these two districts should take keen interest in how the road contractors will execute their duties.

Timothy Kambilima
LUANSHYA

The Sunday Times of Zambia of May 3, 2015, revealed that the Ndola City Council has made a decision to demolish the Lubuto Library in order to pave way for the construction of the mini-shopping mall by an investor, namely, Inos Holdings Limited.

I want to register my sentiments on this matter.
I do not support the idea. I strongly oppose it because it is a negative and retrogressive step.
My understanding is that the demolition of the said library is a setback for the intellectual development of the residents of Lubuto. I believe that, initially, the council established and developed the library to be the centre for learning where residents would come to read, study and research. In this way, they would develop intellectually.
Having a shopping mall and a library is good for the community of Lubuto. The former deals with economic development of the people, while the latter is about the intellectual development of the same people. In my humble opinion, the residents of Lubuto need both of these forms of development at the same time.
That is, the community of Lubuto should neither be denied of economic development nor intellectual development.
To demolish the library and replace it with a shopping mall is counter productive. The residents of Lubuto would be deprived of intellectual development at the expense of economic development.
The implications of closing this library are as follows.
The first implication is that the people of Lubuto will have no place to go for studying, reading and researching.
The second implication is that there is already in existence a poor readership attitude among Zambians.
By closing the Library, this habit would be perpetuated forever. The third implication is that the employees at the library would be jobless.
I want to make some proposals to the City fathers of Ndola towards the preservation of the Lubuto Library.
Firstlt, I plead with them to rescind their decision of demolishing it. Instead, they should look for an alternative land within Lubuto and give it to the investor to develop it into a shopping mall. Secondly, the current library is too small to accommodate the growing population of Lubuto.
It is also not conducive for reading, research and studying. I, therefore, suggest to the council to put up modern library structures to meet the intellectual needs of the residents of Lubuto.
Thirdly, if the council has failed to run the library, they should surrender it to someone who is capable of running it effectively.

Bishop Israel G. Simbaya
Concerned citizen, Lusaka
Cell: 0977151141/0955888364

WHEN LAND SHALL BE NO MORE

Land can be watered,
Can be nurtured,
Can not grow,
Can be acquired raw.
Can embrace the weed,
Can never be a seed.
Can be granted,
Can not be planted.

Yes!
It shall run out of breath,
Shall face suffocation,
Shall drown in extinction.

Now,
What will happen to the bond of marriage and birth?
The divine path of death.

The stretch of land at hand,
A huge piece of land,
Day in, day out, shall lose weight,
For any one shall not wait.

In old and new eyes,
The once mighty land,
Shall just be a picture.
Shall render no space,
To that black hearse.
Shall be no more,
For us all.
…………….
CHRIS MULENGA
0955787910 / 0975125153
chrismulenga@yahoo.com