By BRIAN HATYOKA –
KAZUNGULA residents have appealed to their district council to upgrade the market and construct a modern bus station and a taxi rank to improve the border town and ultimately attract tourists to the area.
A Kazungula resident, Joseph Mulowa said the border was already attracting tourists from countries in Southern Africa such as Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe and hence, it was important for the council to improve the existing market and other infrastructure to attract more tourists.
Speaking in an interview in Kazungula during the week, Mr Mulowa said the current market and the site where buses and taxis parked left much to be desired as they did not befit the border status.
Mr Mulowa said the area had potholes and no proper lavatory facilities, while it was muddy during the rainy season.
He said marketeers, taxi and bus drivers were paying levies to the council daily but there was no improvement to the trading facilities.
“Look at our market, it is very big but it only has small lavatory. Local and international drivers use the nearby bush to answer the call of nature,” Mr Mulowa said.
“We want the council to use the levies they collect from us to improve the market, build new toilet as well as construct a taxi station and a proper bus station.”
He said the market was usually inaccessible to visitors and most local people during the rainy season because of the mud.
Kazungula Patriotic Front (PF) vice-youth chairperson Lufunda Muteshi asked the council to electrify a shelter which had been put up inside the market.
Mr Muteshi wondered why there was no taxi rank when drivers were loading everyday to pay the council.
Street lights are not working and as Kazungula youths, we are giving the council 24 hours to improve the area,” Mr Muteshi said.
A trader at Kazungula market, Ellen Naweji accused the council of intimidating the traders at the premises.
“The council came to my shop and asked for money so that they could bring me a licence to be selling in a shop. I paid money for the licence and now it is about three months since they got money without giving me back the licence. We want change,” Ms Naweji said.
“They chase street vendors and make us sleep in police cells. They don’t give us back our merchandise when we pay money and where do they take our goods?”
When contacted for a comment, Kazungula District Council Secretary Winstone Kasonkomona declined to comment.

Vendors move cheer Lusaka shoppers

BY SARAH TEMBO
SHOPPERS and retailers in Lusaka have welcomed the announcement by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to relocate street vendors from the central business district.
The ministry announced during the week that a designated area had been found to which vendors would be allocated to clean the streets.
Kabwe Musonda, a Lusaka resident, said the decision was long overdue because the streets of Lusaka had almost become impassable because of street vendors.
She said the Government’s decision would bring sanity in the capital city which had been crowded and had become dirty because of the unprecedented number of vendors on the streets.
“Vendors can’t continue trading from the streets. The central business area has become choked with vendors, and it is now difficult to tell the difference between a street and a market because everywhere looks like a market,” she said.
Another resident, Chiwala Kaoma, said the Government’s decision to remove the vendors was a good idea because it would help Lusaka City Council (LCC) clean the city.
He said with the Golden Jubilee cerebrations next month, it would be prudent to remove vendors from the streets so that the city could be cleaned.
“As we celebrate our Golden Jubilee, we want the CBD to be clean, free from thieves and street vending as we will have a lot of visitors coming from different countries,” he said.
Ruth Mutale, another vendor on Freedom Way, said their removal should be done without exception to ensure that no one was disadvantaged in their business activities.
“It will be beneficial if all the vendors were removed at the same time because if you remove some and leave others then that will be a source of confusion,” he said.
Kabwe Malama said the decision was welcome because many people were putting their lives at risk trading in the street.
“Trading along the busy roads is so dangerous and in case of an accident we risk being killed. We are ready to be reallocated to a safe place where we can be trading from,” she said.

Water blues irk Matero residents

BY SARAH TEMBO
SOME residents in Lusaka’s Matero Township have expressed concern over the continued erratic water supply by Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWASC).
The township has experienced intermittent water supply with some houses getting dirty commodity for the past two months.
Chanda Chilekwa a resident, said the area had been experiencing erratic water supply for the past two months without any explanation from the water utility firm.
Mr Chilekwa said it was unfair that residents were being supplied with water after four to five days when they were required to pay the bills every month.
“Maybe it is the pipes that are very old and there is need for replacement rather than keeping on supplying people with water after four to five days,” he said.
Caleb Chilwa said water was an essential commodity which needed to be readily available all the time.
He said lack of water was the source of outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases among members of the community.
“There is nothing we can do without water. When water is not available then it causes a danger to public health, so we are asking the water company to rectify the problem,” Mr Chilwa said.
Another resident, Memory Daka called on the LWSC to resolve the problem as soon as possible before the rainy reason to avoid disease outbreaks.
Ms Daka said if nothing was done, the situation would become worse in the rainy season and would contribute to the outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases like cholera.
“We have endured for a long time, we fetch water in far places and pay per container but we are also required to pay the bills every month to Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company,” she said.
LWASC public relations manager Topsy Sikalinda said the company was not aware of the problem but promised to send inspectors to the site and correct the situation.

LCC connects water supply to 500 Chainda houses

By PASSY HAACHIZO
THE Lusaka City Council (LCC) has legalised about 500 houses in Chainda Township and these are now ready to be supplied with piped water and other social amenities.
The structures, which have been regarded as illegal, would also witness massive development activities around them following their legalisation.
Area councilor Given Lwenshi said the decision would also see the connection of electricity by Zesco.
Mr Lwenshi, who is also Constituency Development Fund vice-chairperson, said he was happy with the ongoing development projects in the area.
Mr Lwenshi said in an interview that he had worked hard to ensure that the houses were legalised to facilitate smooth development.