About 400 make shift stalls at Lusaka’s Town Centre Market have been demolished by the Council.
The stalls were razed in the early hours of – Saturday.
The traders were enraged by the turn of events claiming they were not given adequate notification.
Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) Ward 14 Chairperson, Webby Phiri and a hardware trader Daniel Mwansa complained that the council only circulated a memo around 18;30 hours – Friday notifying them of the impending demolitions.
They say the the local authority had initially notified them of the demolitions with a pledge that this would only be done, after allocating them 400 alternative trading spaces to conduct their business.
The traders say no alternative trading place has been allocated to them.
Most traders were found sifting through the rubble comprising iron sheets and planks.
[ZNBC]
good job lcc. these traders have been a nunsense for a long time
I do not support the mushrooming of illegal structures but letting them grow and then crushing them at a later stage seems kind of harsh and vindictive.
I’m assuming warnings were served from inception otherwise i would be an extremly bitter person if affected without prior adequate notice given.
#2 Amen
Lusaka is a mess. While the population has grown exponetially over the years, the market sizes have remained the same. Were do you expect the growing number of traders to trade when no new markest are developed ?. All LCC seems to do is refurbish existing ones.
Sanity must prevail. People should not solely decide where they want to build without council approval. Two wrongs do not make a right!
The LCC should make space available legally and without cost, near the center of town. The problem is that the present MDC, with all it’s claims about being pro-business, somehow exclude Zambian business from that picture, and bend over backwards to accomodate foreign direct investment (FDI). The LCC should be courting the marketeers, as a source of commerce, services and employment in the city.
And another thing about marketeers. Unlike government employees, unless marketeers sell something people need or want to buy, they don’t eat.
Which ethically elevates them to a higher level in my book.
Their activities are deflationary, while the massive and bloated government is inflationary.
# 7. MrK
I agree, the market place should be encouraged. It provides many mothers and pipo on low incomes with a valuble source of income to educate their kids. It provides mothers with the means to feed the family. Traditionally the market has been an important mainstay in the life of Zambians
Giant markets should be developed instead of market shacks around the city like is happeing now and SA style shopping malls.
I for one would prefere to shop in a traditonal market, buying zambian produce and crafts instead of shopright, buying SA stuff.
The Gvt should allocate some land to all those marketeers some distance from town centre.We need to decongest Lusaka city centre.It is disgusting and there are a lo of thieves in town.I dread my trip into town centre
think globally, shop locally.
Think BIG, Start SMALL.
Clean the city. Lusaka is just 1 of the (extremely) dirteist cities on earth. But while you raze those stalls create more and modern market outside the city centre with fee-paying modern public toilets equipped with baby-change facilities, autoflash toilets, electric hand driers, ever supplied with toilet tissues. And toilet attendants must be educated as not to be insulting users as if they offering a favour to users. There must also be an effective gabbage collection systems from the market skips. As mentioned above, this will decongest the city centre and in a way deal with thugs bunched in 1 place.
I ve talked about the ever-supply of toilet tissues. At 1 time I had a colleague from Ghana who was implementing his plan to build fee-paying toilets in Ghana capital city. However, my colleague had collected a pile of newspapers in the home. When I asked which hobby my colleague was involved in. The answer was- “No, this is not a hobbiy but these newspapers will serve as wipes in the toilets am building back home”. This is very embarassing. But, am sure it can happen in Zambia, too. Where the LCC builds toilets with no responsibilty of supplying toiletries.
Whats the logic for the council to leave demolished structures lying in the city centre? I thought demolition was in the spirit of the keep zed clean compaign, hence the need for the council to also pick up the remains of the demolished structures? Or the council expects the victims to clean up the mess?
Can you guys with all these good thoughts about how important maketeers are to the economy MR K and them, please help to pump this sense to our leaders in Zed.
I had never looked at it from the deflation/inflation pespective, not that i know a thing about economics
Good work LCC !!the place looks neat and decent now.we don’t need ramsshackles in the city centre.clear those rubbles now!!
Guys we should take LCC to account for all the moneys eg levies,tax,service charges,water charges etc etc.All such moneys are supposed to make people’s lives in the city easier.Its hard to have tap water in Lusaka while house holds are payibng for the services/.Refuse collection and cleaning is so erratic.We need to make sure we follow our money where it goes then we will be encouraged to pay more.To date some house holds dont know why they pay and what they pay for.
8. shushushu says: Jun 21st, 2008 at 8:27 pm
” Giant markets should be developed instead of market shacks around the city like is happeing now and SA style shopping malls. I for one would prefere to shop in a traditonal market, buying zambian produce and crafts instead of shopright, buying SA stuff. ”
That is also the way to stimulate local production and local farmers. It would be good for the economy. Anyone who can buy up a large piece of land near the town centre could start an open air market, perhaps with some covered parts with bars, icecream shops where people could sit down after their shopping. If they charged marketeers 10% of their profits, everyone would make money.
15. Kabwa ka mazakala says: Jun 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
” Can you guys with all these good thoughts about how important maketeers are to the economy MR K and them, please help to pump this sense to our leaders in Zed. I had never looked at it from the deflation/inflation pespective, not that i know a thing about economics. ”
Thanks for your kind words. 🙂 The government of the day believes in free trade, but somehow they don’t extend that to Zambian entrepreneurs. If they would make sure every town center had a large and easily accessible market place, they would be much better off than with any number of ‘free trade zones’ that cater to foreign businesses with ridiculous concessions.
Council well done BUT: Firstly you cannot prosecute someone for trading illegally if there is no evidence to that effect thus the deliberate letting of these ntembas to mushroom. Secondly poor planning for the council, instead of reactionary planning where when the marketeers are many that is when you start building markets, let them sit down and make projections, of how much market space would be required in the year 2100 for instance and put a plan forward of how they intend to address that. For now this is so arbitrary and very unorganised making the LCC look bad and vindictive. The ideas of mega stores, mega markets are brilliant.
#15 kandiluma sunu we, kwaamba omuntu obantu (for #15 only)
LCC should encourage the culture of building story buildings to accommodate more and more traders, this way you are creating more space for traders and reducing walking space for shoppers. Quality also should be looked into, Bravo on the work done so far but more needs to be looked into.
….I hope to travel to Lusaka soon after 8 years and see for myself the developments. I just hope and pray its still not as dusty and greenless as I left it in 2000.I really don’t want to be carry a shoe brush and a handkerchief every time i leave my car.
The trend nowadays is to build shopping malls and markets near townships and not downtown or town center as it is called in Zed. This helps to decongest the downtown.
#23 Please consider buying a bath towel; a handkerchief won’t be good enough. Rubber boots will be another smart way of beating the dust.
I meant #24 and not #23
#23 am telling you i was shocked to see kalulushi last year.it was in a state worse than it was in 1980.oh God i nearly cried. am sure they have had countless MPs with no vision.The projects i found kwati twaiche tulebuta.at least ndola was clean with some statues near the hospital.and the people i was with were not disappointed.
….ha ha, a towel it is then. sad but very funny!