Government has pledged to work extremely hard in order to provide social amenities such as schools, health institutions and water supply to people in every part of the country.
Deputy Minister in the Office of the Vice President, Harry Kalaba, said all the Zambians should enjoy access to basic needs such as water, education and health services.
Mr Kalaba said it was unacceptable that some Zambians were still lacking safe drinking water, schools and clinics as close to their communities as possible, 48 years after the country attained its independence from colonial masters.
He said this today when he toured Simonga area and Liyemo village in Livingstone rural and the Sikute Resettlement Scheme in Kazungula district in Southern Province.
In Simonga area, Mr Kalaba was saddened that a community of over 3,000 people can be depending on one borehole as a source of water.
The borehole at this area caters for a clinic, a school and a police post apart from the ordinary households.
Mr Kalaba was also disappointed that there was only one teacher at Namapande primary school which caters for the population of over 130 households scattered in the Sikute Resettlement Scheme covering about 10,000 hectares in Kazungula district.
He observed that the community did not have adequate social amenities because it was neglected by the previous government.
“The PF government wants to bring development to all the people regardless of where they live,” he said while attributing the sluggish development in the area to lack of commitment by the previous government.
Mr Kalaba, therefore, promised that government would move swiftly to attend the needs of people in the area.
“There is no place where people live where there is no school, road or clinic. We need to build a clinic here soon,” he said amid applauses from members of the communities who are in dire need of the amenities.
He said government will also attend to the food shortage in the area while the settlers’ other concerns will receive attention after relevant authorities are consulted.
And chairman of the Sikute Resettlement Scheme, which is also known as Namapande, Kalimukwa Likando, outline a number of challenges which included alleged harassment from one organization known as Sikute Trust and the Zambia wildlife Authority (ZAWA).
The challenges were echoed by members of the community.
Mr Kalaba is in Southern Province to get first hand information on the challenges in resettlement schemes and on projects supported by the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) which fall under the Office of the Vice President.
The settlers in Sikute Resettlement Scheme were evacuated from Kasaya which gets flooded every rainy season.
They were resettled in Sikute Resettlement Scheme in 2008 but they still do not have offer letters and title deeds to their 100 by 500 metres plots.
ZANIS
Yawn!!!! He is a deputy minister for God’s sake! How can he be so ignorant about the living conditions of most Zambians? Is it not the promise his party made to ameliorate the situation in 90 days that propelled it to power?
Indeed it is so saddening and hopefully the govt does something, we are tired of you guys talking and always blaming the former regime of not having done this or that. Amalanda kanwa iyo twapapata. Talking will not solve these problems affecting many parts of the country. Start working now, mwalanda sana!
How did he even become minister when he is so ignorant about peoples suffering?
Politicians are so insincere, I struggle to call you honorable. Mr minister, if you had just landed from Space I would have understood your shock. Am sure it does not register in your mind when you see stats like 69% of the people are living below the poverty datum line. Am sure the concept of the poverty datum is too abstract for your to comprehend hence you shock upon seeing the concrete.
Endorse Ideas. Not People.
get a lif minyoster
OUR MINISTERS NEVER CEASE TO SHOCK ME. THEY ARE ALWAYS SHOCKED AT THE POVERTY LEVELS IN MOST PARTS OF ZAMBIA, ESPECIALLY RURAL AREAS. THIS SHOCK BY OUR MINISTERS MEANS THAT THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN TO ANY RURAL PART OF ZAMBIA. OR IT IS JUST A POLITICAL FORMALITY TO GET SHOCKED AT POVERTY LEVELS WHENEVER THEY VISIT SUCH AREAS. MEANING THEIR SHOCK IS A LIE.
I LIVE OVERSEAS. BUT THE FIRST PLACE I GOT TO WHENEVER I VISIT ZAMBIA IS MY VILLAGE(S). EVEN THE POVERTY LEVELS DON’T SHOCK ME THOUGH IT’S ME WHO IS SUPPOSED TO BE SHOCKED BY DEFAULT OF LIVING IN A HIGH DEVELOPED/INDUSTRIALISED WORLD. THESE MINI-STERS WHO GET SHOCKED ARE NOT FIT FOR THEIR OFFICES AND ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY. I DON’T KNOW IF THEY EVEN KNOW THE MEANING OF SHOCK.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER SHOULD BE REMINDED OF WHAT VP PROMISED THE PEOPLE THERE PRIOR TO THE BY-ELECTIONS.
Because Zambia has missed the mark when it comes to knowing what development is.
The little of it that is there is centered in Lusaka and I don’t mean a movie theatre and Malls. Development is healthcare, schools, roads, clean water across the board.
Shocked? What planet is he from?
Does he seriously need to only see poverty when he goes to rural? Do the vendors in towns reflect wealth to him?Poverty in Zambia is everywhere so looking at one area and feeling grieved is not enough, let the man cry a river since whole country has poverty all over. Time for government to live upto to its promises to entire nation, finish!
oh wow we are now employing foreigners as ministers now. hmmmmm
He is not aware that 48 yrs is the closest to his life expectance as a Zambian
what shock? are you sure you live in Zambia?
Minister stop tossing your dice around or back and forth. This business of blaming the previous regime will definitely not attract any logical Zambian to your camp. This is a scheme designed to twist Zambians are who are overburdened with daily pressures which psychololgically gave birth to other maladies and also in addition to above, the non realisation of the re-election pledges.Minister you risk losing your support base due to unthought about strategies. Viva HH, UNPD
Every time ministers are appointed they express shock at conditions in the country…shock is then followed by complacency and inaction.*yawn*
If I were him, ordered to go to such a poverty stricken area, I would first lose weight, to avoid looking incongruous and hypocritical, a sham! You can excuse a foreigner but not a minister pleading ignorance of the state of affairs. Shameful statistics scream everyday every where all the time that Zambia, in-spite of inherent wealth, upwards of 80% live in poverty, and he is not aware of this!. A minister!!!
What have you done to alleviate the situation? Sure,as much as i don’t like PF lets keep in mind that zed is largely made up of underachievers.Tis the reason we can’t run mines,zed airways collapsed and zamtel was in ICU.Tis the reason we have foreigners running every critical entity and zambians just satisfied with simply being employees.We aim low and lowlife is what we get.We don’t really challenge ourselves much and whatever govt is in power is just a reflection of us and our low aiming mentality.
Lets not all pile up on the minister coz we share blame.The reason other countries are rich is largely bcoz of private sector innovation & wealth creation.It is private corporations that’ve made France,UK or Japan rich.In zed we see things the other way round and forget GRZ lives off our taxes.If you don’t work hard to create wealth there’s no tax for GRZ to improve lives of others.Nobody has ever lived well by depending on govt or others.
castrate the pretender.bukala bwakwe. and what is happening to the evergreen ZWD.i can`t access.have they been blocked by malupenga and andeleki???
You don’t just need to go to rural areas, the whole Zambia is a shock- Lusaka included. If these ministers were shocked, they would not they would not increase their pays with such high percentages.
Ka Minister!!!!! UBUBI ……KOSWE
@Mzambia wa zamani I believe that we are granted opportunities by God and when we make it, let us avoid demeaning other people. Those countries that you guys live too hundreds of years to reach where they are. I take exception to labelling the whole country as being made up of underachieves. they are many factors that have contributed to poverty some of which have been caused by the very people you are worshipping. E.g the world bank and IMF; they caused more harmed to our service delivery by simply cutting public service without any due diligence. Trade policies of those countries you live makes sure that we for ever remain where we are. They subsidise products for which we have comparative advantage & how do you expect us to grow our industries with limited market opportunities
There you go like typical zambian blaming everybody-foreigners,IMF and world bank-anything but oneself.South Korea,Singapore & Malaysia certainly didn’t take hundreds of yrs to reach where they are so find another excuse.Infact Singapore got independence around same time as zambia and S Korea was dirt poor as zambia yet they operate under the same trade policies as zed does.Finally learn some reading-i didn’t say all zambia is made up of under achievers.I said zed is (key word ) LARGELY made up of underachievers.There’s big difference there in the word LARGELY.
Continued – Then there are people like you who I am sure do not even send some money home even after benefiting from education in Zambia. Look at the Rwandan diaspora, they have formed an investment vehicle that pools money contributed Rwandans abroad and has contributed to infrastructure development in the country, transforming Kigali from a town as small as Chililabombwe to rival Lusaka.
LT the last post is just a continuation of the one at 22 and yet u hold pending site moderator. what criteria do you use so that we know what to comment or to leave you site altogether because this is getting too much
You are acting instead of helping the poorest of the poor, we know those strategies for instance here in S. Africa in particular Kwazul-Natal, this mentioned area is a predominantly a Zulu area and it was an Ikhanta stronghold. Dr.Buthelezi had unmatched influence even the feared ANC was a junior to Ikhanta. The point here is how did ANC manage to win control over Kwazulu-Natal, they did not accuse Dr.Buthelezi of being a tribalist even though they attempted to pursue this line of argument but it back fired infact whenever they tried it, it consolidated the Zulus more than before. It should serve as lesson to the PF regime if they keep on acussing HH of being a tribalist they (PF) are consolidating the Tongas and other tribes who mirror the PF as non-archievers and self-serving elements.
The ANC employed a simple strategy of pumping billions of dollars into Kwazulu-Natal few years prior to elections, it reconstructed/constructed a lot of houses in the Kwazulu-Natal both in urban and rural areas and electrified them. In addition all poor citizens received free electricity for one year and they were also promised to receive further free electricity until further notice. More social grants were also implemented and the poorest of the poor received those grants running into billions of US dollars. Following those archievements almost everyone voted for the ANC and the Ikhanta was reduced to a branch/ward party. However, we all know that South Africa is the most unequal society in the world because of the growing divide between the rich and the poor. Viva HH, UNPD
This guy surely must be a BABOON.Does he come from another planet??
In fact by the time the Inkhanta tried to restrengthen its support base people had alread developed counter strategies to deal with Inkanta intimidatory tacitics and its usual Zulu philosophical rhetorics. However, the Tambo Mbeki leadership was one kind of a leadership never seen on the African continent even to a certain degree uncomparable to other regimes in the global sphere in that Mbeki is an academic who ruled S. Africa according to his quality education and he was surrounded with Oxford/Harvard advisers who sets him apart from other African leaders of his time and arguably even presently. Hence he was dubed as a white man in a black in a blackman ‘s skin and it was this internalisation among S. Africa ‘s youths that led to his demise, eventually we see J. Zuma as a leader.
@Lennox Luzipo, what you’ve presented is an oversimplification of the South African political situation. It is TRUE Mbeki is educated. He is an Economics graduate of Sussex university. Zuma on the other hand had no formal education. In Economic policy , Mbeki was a centrist what others call a neoliberal. In his 9 years of office, the South African economy grew at annual rate of 5%. But to the Youth League of Juju and other leftists like Cosatu and SACP this was not impressive enough as there was allegedly no redistribution. Added to this was the accusation that Mbeki was elitist i.e. couldn’t sing Mshini wami like peoples’ man Zuma.
@Mwana Sana #22 Good start of attacking an agument, however, the element of understanding the history developments which led the Reagans and Thatchers of this world as it were, to implement policies designed in Washington for emerging markets is central if we want to balance the flow of trade and the mobilty of capital. We see the recognition of Africa as an emerging market collectively by the World Bank & the IMF for the interests of the investors not for that of the African masses, hence we see that the masses are excluded from the equation yet when they talk to your leaders they seem to place your needs before theirs. It is a fallacy and nothing to date reflects your interests anywhere in their schedules. Viva HHHHH, UNPD. Peace to all Zambians
Honourable Kalaba. from your name, I would like to conclude that you are from Luapula Province (forgive me if I am wrong). If you are, just inspect the townships, especially Sumbukeni and Kapesha , both five minutes drive from the Town of Mansa. The people in this area have never had piped water since Independence, but have had to sink wells all their lives. How can you be shocked about what is happening in another province you are visiting today, when this is normal in your own home province? Eiiiiisssh!!!!
Good point..! Wat a ***** of a minister pretending tat al is well wen his own village is in shambos.PF is a bunch of rotted zombies.NONSENSE.
@Luzipo. Now add to the mix that while he was VP Zuma had charges of rape and corruption against him. So the leftists smelled conspirancy i.e. Mbeki wanted to stop Zuma from becoming President. The leftists banded together and recalled Mbeki at Polokwane. After Zuma assumed the Presidency in 2009 we saw change in membership numbers of the ANC. To date it is down in Mbekis home area of Eastern Cape. And it is grown huge in Kwa Zulu Natal. This is what has killed the Inkatha Freedom Part. Zuma today is in crisis. His allies Cosatu have no control over their members. Just look at the number of striking unions!
THIS MIN-STAR IS A BLACK RAT WHO WILL NEVER APPRECIATE. THERE WAS NO RESETTLEMENT HERE 48 YEARS AGO. IT CAME IN 2008 AND THE MMD GOVT DID WELL, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE. JUST IMPROVE ON WHAT IS ALREADY THERE, DON’T BLAME THEM MMD IN FACT YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY THAT THEY DID THAT. THE SCHOOL, THE CLINIC AND THE POLICE POST ARE THERE JUST IMPROVE THEM, MWE MBUSHI MWE. AND THOSE PEOPLE ARE DOING BETTER THAN THOSE IN THE STREETS, ARE YOU FROM JUPITER WHERE GOT MORE STUPITER?
WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS BAD, INSTEAD OF WORKING YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE PEOPLE HATE THE PREVIOUS GOVT. FOR YOUR LAZINESS. BUT THE PEOPLE OF ZAMBIA KNOW WHO IS WORKING AND WHO IS NOT. VERY SOON IN 2016 YOU WILL BE OUT FOREVER. THE PEOPLE WHO RESETTLED THERE WILL NEVER SAY MMD WAS WRONG TO GIVE THEM LAND, MWE CHIPUBA FYE NIMWE BA MINI- SKIRT OR SORRY MINI-STAR,, YAH INE ICHISUNGU NAMA SIPELINGI…. AWE MWE.
@Comrade Livingstone#28, thanks for the comments, well and good. Continuing further, We bear testimony to the changes/alterations employed by the imperialists in their historical attempts to persuade Africans in the wake of crises. Africa adapted neoliberal policies and govts. were made to lessen their bureacratic economic policies so that the private sector could enjoy autonomy. This led to uncontrolled flow of capital across boarders in one direction only and it also promoted the accumulations of capital reserves for the transnational companies. On the other hand, the host govts. had to reduce their size which weakened their structures. It followed that service delivery was affected due these neoliberal policies, however, lets explore the manipulations which places us in the present mes
@Comrade Livingstone#31, There are too many elements which weave each other, however, for an outsider the media is not a good source of information. Presently, recall that the dwiddling ANC support base especially in the Kwazulu-Natal region is attributed to Juju (Julious Malema). You must recall that not along the juju boy a ‘slang’ name in the township Tsotsi language, he is a face of the poor and the untaught/unemployed and therefore he speaks their language. This has led him to compaign aggressively against his political enemies (the entire ANC hierarchy) and the masses are heeding to his calls hence we see the ANC developing deep cracks and has reduced the Zumas to being consultants in lieu being the head known to be taking bored decisive steps in a desperate period
Looking at the previous Zuma rape case, the state witness was a poor witness based on her eveidence in chief she made to the prosecutors before she was further relentlessly subjected to bruising robust cross-examination. The defence team had no messy for the state in that her past sexual consent element is a deciding factor in establishing whether a ‘witness’ is trustworth or susceptible to falsehoods. It was learned that the witness had a history of openong false rape cases with our local police service and the defence traced those policemen/women who wrote those dockets and other suspects in those cases. After marathone crossexaminations the witness was reduced to a liar and she was unreliable in that she could not remember what she testified earlier.
The element of conspirancy is believed to have been the work of the camp in the ANC which we all know it was a rival camp of the Mbeki administration. The so-called revolutionalists as they successfully constracted that identity managed to have the cases thrown out of court using the argument that those cases of corruption were politically motivated by the Zuma ‘s rivals, namely Mbeki being one of them. That development strengthened their (Julious Malema & others) argument that Mbeki was behind Zuma ‘s frustrations. In fact Julious was instrumental in shaping Zuma ‘s political career before the Polokwane historical events. Like Zuma, Julious Malema has a dubious educational background and he has mastered his art in political manipulations as young as he is. Viva HHHHHH
Today we see the two significant political figures in S.Africa ‘s political mayhem namely President and Juju boy shapening their swords, each one of them looking for the right opportunity to slice the other. No doubt that Juju boy is a political opponent who is behind the on-going industrial unrest in South Africa which is costing the S.African economy tens of billions of US dollars loss in the mining sector alone and the sydrome has spilled over to other sectors. This shows that age is not a deciding factor in the game of politics but the power in which one can penetrate the masses and be able to make turn them against the forces that may be. This is just a begining of Juju boy ‘s long compaigns which have the strength to effect changes in the region and Botswana is Juju ‘s next stop.
I see … so the minister is just now coming alive to the fact that there is poverty in Zambia.
Well that’s different then; because had he known sooner, he would have done something about it. Good thing he knows; lets see what he’ll do now.
Let me save you some time.
Nothing. He will do nothing.
Juju boy hates the pro-western regime in Botswana and that govt. is very worried about him and completely uncomfortable with his rhetorics which prompted that govt.’s representative to submit official complaints to their S. African counterparts. Juju boy remains unmoved and firm with his rhetorics. He is likely to rule this country because the support base identify themselves with him and he will block supplies to Botswana so as to effect change. Botswana is heavily reliant on S. Africa for heavy mining equipment, expert knowledge, basics such as vegetables, milk, carbohydrates (meali-meali, rice, ceareals) even water. Viva HHHH, UNPD
What problems are these guys addressing if they do not know how poor people really are. This is one year in office and the party is still being surprised with the level of poverty. when are they going to develop solutions
Those are the results of harding Dora slit and her useless MMD counterparts. Pathetic worms.
Those are ,the results of hard working Dora slit and her useless party MMD. Pathetic roaches. Too much money wasted by these manon’wu
There seems to be a lot of discussion on RSA and neo-liberal issues here. What is at the heart, however, is that the Zambian government (regardless of who has been in power) has failed lamentably to translate their flamboyant speeches and shock-expressions into something the ordinary people in the street can live off and appreciate. It is well and good to blame the IMF, World Bank and all the “outsiders” but, like Mzamani points out – WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT IT OURSELVES?????? Waiting for 2016 to cast votes for another Kalaba to express shock?
@Kalok#45
Please brother/sister, sorry for interjecting your discourse by integrating South African issues in this platform which has been allocated for Zambian social concerns. I was only trying to cite examples which are very similar to Zambia’s own problems. Note that most of the arguments here are similar and solutions can be identified if one can also pursue arguments of analogy such as the South African problems as disussed above. Furthermore I am very sorry for minor omissions and spellings in my previous above submissions it is because this system does not allow me to edit what I write. Hopefully my apology has whole heartedly noticed and considered. Viva HH, UNPD.
@Lennox Luzipo#46
Oh oops notice that in the last sentence I ‘m suppose to say ‘Hopefully my apology has whole heartedly been noticed and considered’. Sorry, sorry.
go to mambova and collapse with shock.
@ Kalok, I was not trying to blame IMF & the rest but merely to make the point that Zambia is poor becoz of a multitude of factors & it is unfair for someone to say its becoz Zambians are underachievers. Why is it that Zambians make when they leave the country? It is mostly to do with govt policies. A lot of Zambian doctors have gone SAR, UK, Australia, etc & perform as well as doctors from those countries becoz the environment permits them to do so. A lot of SMEs are contributing to growth without much of govt support. Just look at the tax burden report & you will discover SMEs pay more taxes in proportionate to large companies. So I repeat I take exception to categorising all Zambians as underachievers just because one got an opportunity to live well due to the sweat of others.
Those that doubt the extent of involvement of the IMF in Zambia’s economic affairs can read the letter of intent in the link below. Government has to explains its policies to the IMF every year and IMF have powers to force government to changes its policies and I have witnessed happen in the time that I used to work for government. The people that advise policies base their advise on their thesis because they are mostly fresh PhD graduates or interns
there goes LT again
http://www.imf.org/external/np/loi/2011/zmb/060311.pdf
To hel with, you do not seem to have a criteria for withholding comments
meant to say to hell with LT
THIS DEPUTY MINISTER NEEDS TO BE FIRED, UBUPUBA HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT YOU ARE SHOCKED BY THE POVERTY LEVELS? ULETUMFYA ABANTU ABALECULA. WHICH COUNTRY DO YOU LIVE IN? PF LEADERSHIP SAW HOW POOR PEOPLE HAVE BEEN A LONG TIME AGO AND THERE CAMPAIGN PROMISES WAS TO ALLEVIATE THEIR SUFFERING, AND YOU THERE YOU ARE SAYING AMA RUBBISH AS THOUGH YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS. CAN SOME ONE FIRE THIS ***** PLEASE!!!!!
Bo Deputy Minnister, Be careful with people like Kalimukwa Likando . He used to work with the corrupt MMD officials and currupt Resettlement Officers from Choma in selling land ment for resettlement to people who were not diplacement persons in that area. Likando himself is not a displaced person. The Sikute Trust and ZAWA are helping to conserve the forest which Likando and his gang are busying ripping apart. you should investigate your Resettlement officer who were incharge of the project.
” Deputy Minister shocked at poverty levels in Livingstone rural 48 years after independence ”
Don’t even drag ‘independence’ into it. This is about 10 years of non-collection of taxes from the mining sector.
If the minister is serious about ending poverty, he and the government need to get behind collecting the Windfall Tax. Or nationalize the mines again, if they can’t collect taxes from them.
The Zimbabweans are starting to get theirs, the South Africans cannot put off land reform much longer and keep their credibility, so what is it going to take for the Zambian government to collect the property of the Zambian people, which are Zambia’s natural resources?
WHAT SHOCK? WHERE IS HON KALABA’S VILLAGE, I MEAN WHERE DOES HE HAIL FROM? I BELIEVE THE POVERY SITUATION IS ALL OVER IN ZAMBIA. MINISTER, DON’T VEX ZAMBIANS BY SUCH UNGUARDED STATEMENTS WHEN YOU KNOW THE TRUTH. IF YOU HAVE FIVE SQUARE MEALS PER DAY, DO NOT FOOL US WHO HAVING DIFFICULTIES IN HAVING EVEN A MEAL A DAY. SHAME ON YOU. IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY, YOU ARE BETTER OF KEEPING QUIET. PERIOD. RIGHT NOW HALF THE COUNTRY IS THIRSTY AND YET YOU ARE THE HEAD OF THE DMMU IN THE VEEP’S OFFICE. WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT ZAMBIANS WHO ARE CRYING FOR WATER?
Reading by way of one’s nice content material, will assist me to complete so at times.