Senior Chief Nsokolo of the Mambwe people in Mbala District in Northern Province is disappointed with the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) for prioritising the electrification of communication towers in his Chiefdom at the expense of the local people who approved the electrification of the same facilities in their land.
Senior Chief Nsokolo is incensed that despite the Government’s pledge and commitment to electrify palaces for the traditional leaders, REA has gone ahead to provide electricity to the towers that were installed in his Chiefdom which he said were not important.
He lamented that the residential village of the Mwene Mambwe, the tribal leader of the Mambwe people was also left out.
Senior Chief Nsokolo said this in a press statement released to ZANIS in Lusaka yesterday issued by his Personal Assistant, Jeff Kapembwa.
He complained that the slow pace of development in Mbala district since 1964 is worrisome.
“Mbala, the ethnically Mambwe tribal area, has been neglected and side lined of development since independence. The last meaningful development was the building of Mbala Secondary School in 1970. All other developments like basic schools and clinics were built by communities with the help from the World Vision International,” Senior Chief Nsokolo said.
The chief recounts that it has been his cry and that of his subjects to seek the construction of a police post in his area about 84 km away from Mbala Boma to redress cases of rape, assault, murder and other crime related activities that were on the increase.
“Repeated appeals to relevant authorities including the Ministry of Home Affairs and the State seeking redress have failed to yield good results as cases of crimes go unabated,” he said.
Efforts to get a comment from the Northern provincial leadership proved futile over the matter.
The chief is, however, optimistic that President Michael Sata would turn things around because he is a man of action.
Lets take development in our own hands. Dependancy and expectancy syndrom is the main cause of our underdevelopment. How did the Pharaohs of Egypt built the Pyramids which everyone in the world acknowleges? What special power, knowledge, physique did they have to do what they did. Why have we abandobed that creativity in us in preference of dependancy and expectancy syndrome? Just how else can we use our brains and that knowledge and power in us and achieve must more. What have we been doing ourselves since 1970 when Mbala Secondary School was built? Cant we achieve much more on our own. Made by Fwebene principle.
One thing at a time. I think communications is equally important. As for the malaiti you are crying for, they will surely come.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THE CHIEF. UNLESS ONE HAS NEVER BEEN TO MBALA AND MPULUNGU. MBALA AND MPULUNGU HAVE LITTLE OR NO DEVELOPMENT AT ALL. ESPECIALLY THE PEOPLE OF MBALA ARE VERY PRODUCTIVE IN AGRICULTURE BUT WITH LITTLE OR NO SUPPORT FROM THE GOVT. WHILE MPIULUNGU IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE HUB OF SHIPS FROM BURUNDI, CONGO, TANZANIA and ZAMBIA THE LIEMBA (now a death trap) HAS NEVER BEEN REPLACED OR NEW SHIPS BOUGHT. THE PLACE IS A TOURIST SPOT. BUT MPULUNGU HABOUR ITSELF IS A SAD SIGHT WHEN IT’S SUPPOSED TO HAVE STATE-OF-THE-ART DOCKING HOBOURS. MBALA PRODUCES BEANS MORE THAN OTHER DISTRICTS PUT TOGETHER BUT ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE IS SO POOR. THERE’S VERY DEEP LAKE CHILA IN MBALA BUT UNDEVELOPED FOR TOURISM AND WATER SPOTTING EVENTS.
THE GRZ MUST DO SOMETHING TO MODERNISE MPULUNGU HABOUR BY CONSTRUCTING TWO NEW STATE OF THE ART HUMAN PASSENGER AND CARGO HARBOURS PLUS BUYING AT LEAST 3 TOTALLY NEW PASSENGER SHIPS FOR A START, PLUS 5 NEW CARGO SHIPS. THE ROAD FROM KASAMA TO MPULUNGU VIA MBALA MUST REHABILITATED AND MADE INTO A DUAL CARRIAGE WAY DUE TO HEAVY TRAFFIC OF HEAVY CARGO ON THAT ROUTE. MBALA AND MPULUNGU TOWNS MUST BE GIVEN NEW MODERN BUILDINGS TO ATTRACT TOURIST AND INVESTORS. THIS IDEA OF MODERNISING THE TOWNS SHOULD ALSO APPLY TO SAMFYA TOWN.
It is well and good to call for creativity and abandon the dependency syndrome. However, I do not believe that there is any merit in you suggesting that this Chief is advocating for dependancy. If anything the very fact that there has been no Govt “input since 1970 when it built Mbala Secondary sch means that they people of Mbala have been creative and hard working to manage to this day. Dont forget that Govt has responsibilities towards every Zambian and providing the basic infrastructure for schools, hospitals and clean water should fall squarely on Govt and not peoples creativity. So when one argues that when electrifying “your towers” also consider electrifying our area, they have good cause to do so.
If you are responding to the Chief, and asking him to take the initiative to electrify the Chiefdom, I will say that you need to reconsider what you have said.
No one can go about generating power without the Laws of the Land getting involved. In any case, in the days of the Pharaohs there was a community effort, rather than individual that saw the innovative development you write about. In our case, it is government responsibility to ensure that people can have what they need. The Chief is looking at these provisions logically. Electricity first, then mobile phone communication. The question is, how do we charge our mobile phones without electricity?
Mr. Chitalu poverty in our country is extreme especially in rural areas. who can afford to contribute for trasformer and poles , if they cannot send their children to school?
Even poverty of the minds. Poor attitudes. we think someone somewhere owes us our own development.
yes @Twaya its strange that we can easily construct communication towers but cannot afford education for our children…..!!! The chief laments.
The Mbala mafia, Hon Silungwe, Hon Chitala, Hon late Mungomba, Hon late Penza. Please Hon Chief it is our brothers and sister from Mambwe land to blame. They spent a lot of time developing other areas forgetting their villages.
Indeed, people need to charge those phones and will need power for that.
Its ignorant to berate people for demanding that govt do their job. What happens to the tax we pay if government is so impotent? Maybe we should take this non dependency idea a step further and demand that government stop depending on our taxes, yes lets stop paying tax and each depend on ourselves smh.