WILLIAM Shakespeare said the world is a stage and all of us are just actors, who after our act move on to leave room for those coming after us.
It is therefore, the non-verbal messages from our particular built environment which live forever as testimony to the level of our civilisation as a nation long after we have all gone to higher service.
Life styles have come and gone without any remnant evidence other than, may be on paper, as part of history may be only to come back in updated versions: miniskirts as a dress fashion have been on the scene before only to disappear without a trace.
Various types of music have emerged and even attained names such as classical or rock music but only to disappear without any further pronounced evidence of public presence. But this cannot be said to apply to the more permanent built environment of any nation even though architectural styles may change.
Even though there will most likely never be another opportunity for a modern architect to build another Hagia Sophia because the powerful Justinian, Emperor of the Byzantines and the Manifestation of Christ may not have a modern equivalent, nor will there be another pyramid like that of Gizeh unless the world again practices a cult of physical immortality in a state of slave builders. However these buildings are still in existence to tell today’s world the type of civilisations practiced by those who lived in those days even though all of them have passed on to another life.
The shaping of the built environment of any nation is not spared from political influence and depending on how this political will or influence is directed it may positively or negatively affect the direction of environmental development to reflect the type of civilization the nation wishes to leave for those who come afterwards.
After all Sir Christopher Wren, the British Town Planner and architect did say “Architecture has its political uses, Public buildings bring the ornament of a country, it establishes a nation, draws people and commerce, makes the people love their native country” but this is only valid where the political will capitalizes on the potentials that architecture offers in establishing a nation whose built environment can be loved by its inhabitants.
As has been stated before it is in the recognition of the fact that people who come to live together in urban areas come from different social, cultural and academic backgrounds and are also expected to live together in harmony as well as share various social amenities that society realised that in order to avoid or minimise conflicts it was important to create rules and regulations to guard issues of common interest. This led to the enactment of the various Acts including the Town and Country Planning Act, CAP 475, The Local Government Act, CAP 480 and many others all meant to regulate and introduce orderly urban living in our towns and cities; the power to monitor and enforce these rules and regulations were mainly vested in Local Authorities.
It is important to note that most of the rules and regulations being relied upon in today’s monitoring of urban development and life styles where inherited from the colonial masters who were also responsible for the setting up of all urban frame works and town planning developments irrespective of the political philosophies that existed then.
What needs to be assessed today is whether the town management models inherited from the colonial masters are still relevant to today’s political aspirations and dispensation as exhibited in Zambia’s current life styles.
As far back as 1979 or fifteen years after Zambia’s political independence there was evidence that something was wrong in the management of urban life especially in reference to what was existing on Zambia’s statute books relating to monitoring and management of urban affairs; these were the days of “imisango yaba chairman” when political cadres such as ward chairmen took over such town planning responsibilities as allocating land and consequently marked the onset of such previously “unknown” diseases as cholera and dysentery on the Zambian scene and led to wide spread loss of life.
On May 12, 2014 there was an item in the print media regarding illegal developers in Kabwe where the Kabwe Municipal Council public relations officer was quoted to have said that ninety per cent of land in Kabwe had been colonized by illegal developers.
The Kabwe Municipal Council public relations officer was quoted to have said “The town planners in the district are having difficulties to execute their job because of the mushrooming of illegal structures in the district.
The plan of the town has been distorted by such illegal activities in Kabwe because of a few greedy individuals” She was further quoted to have stated what is obvious and applicable to all local authorities that “It is illegal to demarcate land without any authorisation from the council or any relevant authority, but it is like here in Kabwe people don’t want to follow the laid down procedures”
As stated above it is the local authorities that have been given the legal mandate to monitor and control developments in their respective areas of jurisdiction so one may justifiably wonder as to who the Kabwe Municipal Council public relations officer is complaining in view of the fact that firstly any building operation takes some time before it materialises within which time any local authority may move in and correct any anomalies and secondly and as stated earlier the responsibility to monitor development in any town or city vests in the local authority.
The answer to this dilemma was made revealed in another news item in the print media on May 14, 2014 where the Choma mayor warned his fellow councillors against illegal allocation of land. The mayor of Choma was quoted to have said “It was sad that some political cadres in Choma’s Kamunza compound were illegally allocating land. “ The mayor further said “The law would not spare council employees who were involved in illegal land allocation in Choma”
The above scenarios are not peculiar to Kabwe and Choma alone this is a common practice in nearly if not all local authorities; the authorities mandated with the responsibility of policing, monitoring and controlling developments in our towns and cities are the major culprits in circumventing the same rules and regulations they are supposed to enforce.
This situation is aggravated by a number of Zambian perceptions which fails to acknowledge the fact that associating or socialising with doctors does not make one a doctor or knowing about construction does not necessarily meant that one knows construction.
Some Council employees including some elected councillors seem to have taken advantage of their association with local authorities and since this behaviour has been going on more or less since independence most if not all local authorities are now in a state of moribund.
A lot of very good ideas are aborted not because they were ill-conceived but because they were badly implemented and this seems to be the fate awaiting the planned decentralisation programme. It is obvious from the performance of local authorities all over the country and some local authority employees themselves have acknowledged the insurmountable challenges they are facing in the management of our towns and cities.
The management and policing of developments in the urban areas have deteriorated significantly in comparison to urban environments in existence before political independence even though most of the existing laws, rules and regulations pertaining to the management of urban life are the same as existed during the colonial days.
Zambia, especially when claiming to be a Christian nation, must also seek guidance from the wisdom of the Holy Bible because in Matthew chapter 25 in versus 28 to 29 the Holy Bible tells us that if you cannot manage the little things entrusted to you even that will be taken away and given to those with more things.
The current model of urban management does not seem to be working in favour of the Zambian population either because there is something wrong with the adopted model or there is no capacity to deliver the expected performance. I
t therefore follows that adding more responsibilities, as will be the case in the implementation of the planned decentralisation programme, to non-performing entities will just mean the built environment is doomed in Zambia. Meaning the built environment being created now will remain as a testimony to the future generations as to the confused state of our current civilisation.
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