Shopping Mail in Makeni
The Mwata Kazembe of the Lunda speaking people has said he is against the decision to convert the Mansa Batteries factory into a shopping mall.
To pave way for the conversion, the owners of the formerly State-owned company early this month advertised in the area surrounding the factory its intention to auction off movable assets.
Items disposed off during the auction included items such as steel beams and different types of equipment.
Speaking in an interview in Mansa, The Mwata said it was sad to learn of such plans as many people in the province had been keenly waiting for the time the factory would become operational.
The chief said it was unfortunate that a formerly vibrant state-owned enterprise had been stripped of assets and sold.
[pullquote]Can you imagine the audacity of some people[/pullquote]
“Can you imagine the audacity of some people? They have been mining manganese illegally without any contribution to the Government treasury.
“Why do they want to create a mall at an already existing piece of infrastructure that was built with public funds? Is land finished?
“There is plenty of empty land that can be developed and turned into a mall. Personally, I am not in support of the plans to turn the factory into a mall. If possible, we would be better off if the factory was revived, he said.
The Mwata said President Edgar Lungu during his recent visit to Luapula had made a bold decision to repossess land that constituted the Kawambwa Tea Estates farms and that was the type of leadership that was needed to sort out the problems that Luapula Province was facing.
Former Luapula Province permanent secretary Alfred Kalumba also said it was unfortunate that plans to turn the factory into mall were advanced.
“It is depressing especially for the people that saw the factory at its peak. It employed so many people here. How many people will be employed at the mall and of what local economic benefit would it create for the locals? he asked
The formerly state-owned factory was privatised and according to sources close to the matter has been sold to a South African company that intends to turn part of it into a named supermarket chain store.
Former Mansa Batteries general manger Charles Kabamba who is chairperson for the chamber of commerce said the association would comment on the matter in due course.
More South African products on the shelves, meaning more forex going out. But who will invest in Mansa Batteries, the Chinese with their pathetic industrial safety policies?
For sure! kuyafana nje………
Not the Chinese please they may convert it into a piggery worse still a kennel!
The traditional chief lives in the past- ignore him and proceed. I believe the shopping will just like wise offer jobs to the locals.
Thanks
BB2014
Everything is ‘Once upon time’. Nothing to inspire younger and future generation and no legacy in Zambia. The country is on sale.
you are very wise ba Mwata. Unfortunately PF and Lungu will not listen.
This mwata kazembe from luapula,.,not HH or Nevers or Nawakwi where you say pono pono!,,,,,Edgar Lungu listen to his concerns, if you want to live in one piece,,,,there is lightening in luapula,,,dont say i didnt tell you
@ndobo, who says pono pono again? Yes, true those who are forcing it tukabatumina utulumba.
Revive Mansa batteries and if you want then build a shopping mall some place else in Mansa
Does it mean shopping malls are the only “industries” we can build?
We need a strong manufacturing industrial base….. not the stup!d malls
Meaning more forex going out and more finished products imports while local manufacturing will be curtailed! Zambians will be consigned to consumers without jobs and whose escalating demand for these finished products will be creating more jobs at the source! The Mwata’s resistance is spot on and it is his people he feels for!
Uko, this is the effeminization of the zambian males. Instead of being productive males, we are being turned into shopaholics who spend most of their time buying stuff from some damn mall. We are consumers and not producers. We have become women in zambia. We receive everything none and dont produce or give out anything. In short we will be receiving the s.p.e.r.m from south africa and we will collect it in our v.a.g.i.n.a. After the pregnancy is mature, we shall give birth to a south african (white male), who will tell us how to dress, what to eat, what entertainment is etc. In the process he will take our land and decide what future our country should embark on. And dont think this is just a coincidence. People already thought out these plans decades ago. Its the destruction of our…
More like pus.sification of the Zambian male!
What country has no pride in its own?
Shameful!
Ba LT,
As you can clearly see, this chap @Zagaze’s comment, who also uses other pseudo names as his IP address will show, is vulgar and insulting to our women, is racist and insulting to Zambians of a different race, and is counterproductive to businesses who advertise and pay LT for that. How long before you delete it? This is brings disrepute to LT. Zagaze is free to make his school-boy conspiracy theories without demeaning other people.
@CACTUS – what have i written that is so offensive. And why do you feel, you should come to the defense of other races when they can do it themselves. this is muzungu anikonde mentality. fighting his battles before he even utters a word himself. My use of effeminization is perhaps too deep for your understanding, but i am surprised you have not denounced the bible when it denegrades women more than i have and it uses such vulgar language that mine here would seem like that of a noble well cultured tumbuka man. Why do you kill your own and let the bible free. Mwabe insele mu bible,buti mulefwaya ine bantafye!!chaba shani bantu bandi? what have these white people done to us to be so parsified towards them and aggressive/hateful towards each other.
Racism is discrimination plus power. how can i affect the life style of any european with the words i write. However, if the white man writes that the sub saharan african is primitive and is at best a child who needs to be controlled. this resulted in the indoctrination of christianity on our people, colonisation of our people, slavery, murder by the barbarian savage john cecil rhodes etc. do you see the difference? Power!!!! they follow their words with action that have dire consequences for our people. If we speak or write against them however, the consequences are reversed back on us again. Mugabe is an example. Am an example here, were you decide i should be banished from this blog. do you see the difference? I can discriminate but am not racist. White people are racist,because they…
continued……….White people are racist,because they have the power to implement what they write or say.
I totally agree with his Royal Highness. Just how blind and daft can we get?
1.) We know very well the demand for energy in the Country is sky high and still rising.
2.) We know that energy supply from the national grid (ZESCO) is very intermittent due to load shedding.
3.) We know that energy from Solar can only be generated during the day.
Therefore, we know that due to above points we need to have means of storing energy at family homestead level and at community level as and when it is available, in much the same way we store water in ‘shomekas’ and water Tanks to mitigate water shortages.
To put it in simple terms, MANSA BATTERIES FACTORY IS A ‘SHOMEKA’ AND TANK MANUFACTURING FACTORY FOR STORING THE MUCH NEEDED SCARCE ELECTRIC ENERGY.
With the advancement in…
Cont’d… advancement in technology, it is now common knowledge there are currently LITHIUM ION BATTERIES BEING MANUFACTURED, which are much more efficient, (Capacity:- up to 10 kWh cycles each) maintenance free and replacing the old bulky Lead Batteries. Now, instead of advancing and partnering with such manufacturers, what are we doing? Shutting down and switching to shopping Malls? Shocking. What is this?
Hats off to his Royal Highness for his good foresight.
Comment: Ba Mwata,let them proceed and build a mall. Unip days are long gone.
Yes let them build the mall, import all products and employ locals for minimum wage with little benefit to the economy
We never learn in Zambia. Invest in manufacturing just like the original concept of Mansa batteries. There is no value in shopping malls. Locals don’t have jobs, so who is going to shop there?
Only PF kaponyas support shopping malls where they gain by being sales reps for SA products, the opposition supports manufacturing plants and factories to replace those products with local ones. by the way who is the MP for that area, you will find he is probably PF and has been bribed by the shop chain to keep quiet.
I am not a fan of HH, but months ago he saw this coming and he said “We must devise ways of attracting investment and revamp dead industries such as the battery factory or even attracting investment for another manufacturing plant such as meat and fish canning industry for supplying to neighbouring countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo and others” https://www.lusakatimes.com/2015/07/10/upnd-president-hakainde-hichilema-saddened-that-pf-has-turned-mansa-batteries-into-a-shopping-mall/
It is now clear that the country was surviving on those eurobonds, because PF are void of any plans that can make moneys for the country.
So in Zambia there is nothing else that can be built apart from shopping malls. All that is being developed are shopping malls across the country and on the already developed property. Let them go develop on virgin land so they can start fro the scratch. More shopping malls, more foreign low quality goods. Zambia is just now a dumping site for Chinese and SA products.
That is a fact, with all that bloated cabinet, none of them can come up with a plan. Only thinking of corruption and earning allowances?? What kind of GRZ do we have? One filled with no plan monkeys. Even if you I.diots negotiate an assembly plant on the site, voters can see at least you think.
But ba LT you know how to match pictures with articles ka. That pic of ka Lungu has nothing to do with the story at hand. except the word mall..
Total nosense. Another mall to sell toothpicks and sweet potatoes (like we have recently seen in Lusaka) imported using our hard earned forex from our diminishing cooper resources? NO please! Come on Zambians let us create industries and not malls that have just made our country a dumping ground and lucrutive market for other economies. What self sustaining jobs are created in malls except for casuals who always abused by their foreign investors who do not even bank their proceeds locally. No wonder our Kwacha can’t hold against other currencies.
Bwafya… We are supposed to be hearing reports of new factories opening up, not shopping malls all over the place. The money we are spending in malls where are we getting it if we can’t earn it through factories by adding value to natural resources that we can export? No wonder the kwacha is weakening all the time against major currencies.
We are poor in our minds…SHAME!
The money we are spending in malls where are we getting it if we can’t earn….
The investor comes with money bwana,unfortunately!
The money we are spending in malls where are we getting it if we can’t earn….
The investor comes with his own money bwana,unfortunately!
HE President lungu, Kellogs cereals the makers of cornflakes and other breakfast cereals have just announced a $450 million investment drive in Africa. We need one of those lazy bloated cabinet to look at arm twisting them to open a plant in Zambia for local consumption and export of course with tax realifs. If not put heavy import duties on their products.
ba Patrick,
too late. The $450mil is for Kellog’s acquisition of a 50% stake in a sales and distribution company based in Nigeria and Ghana. ka Lungu can even get down on his knee and beg but I don’t think it will help. He can even offer to lick the toes of John Bryant, Kellog’s chief but nothing doing
Ifintu ni Lungu.
YES MWATA. ENSURE NO ONE VOTES FOR PF. AT LEAST YOU REALIZED THEY HAVE SOLD THE COUNTRY AND WE ARE BEEN RUN BY FOREIGNERS.LUNGU MUST GO.
Mwata Kazembe’s people don’t speak lunda -please. Why open shopping malls evrywhere instead of industries? We are creating jobs for south africans!!
QUESTION IS,
CAN LOCALLY MADE BATTERIES COMPETE WITH IMPORTED ONES IN THIS ERA?
You are a very dull person. So you mean a battery produced in Zambia cant be compared to a battery produced in China? You are likened to those dull Zambians who used to say they put on imported clothes and always used to go to UK with Zambia air ways to buy suits. They used to buy serios design and boasted about it to their friends as Uk suits, and yet little did they know that the serio design was imported from Zambia to UK…in short these guys were putting on Zambian made suits. This is your type , you dull man.
GRZ are letting in solar panels duty free. Why not try and get one producer to have panels assembled in Zambia tax free. The only stipulation is they must incorporate Zambian copper conductor’s. That way we are getting employment, and copper is been bought to be used in those panels. As the import free situation is now, we gain nothing. Import tax all other makes imported. This is win win for Zambia. Only the south Africans and Chinese will be disappointed because they will be losing employment.
So for all the years this factory was operational no technology transfer took place.No Zambian/s could garner enough capacities to run it? More blame shud also be on those who evaluated and sold the factory. apparently that’s the time it was striped of the most valuable assets by the buyer who happens to be in dairy business.perhaps that’s when Mansa people shud ve intervened becoz what’s bein sold now is more of scrap metal.Surely not worth crying about!We lost
So for all the years this factory was operational no technology transfer took place?No Zambian/s could garner enough capacities to run it? More blame shud also be on those who evaluated and sold the factory. apparently that’s the time it was striped of the most valuable assets by the buyer who happens to be in dairy business.perhaps that’s when Mansa people shud ve intervened becoz what’s bein sold now is more of scrap metal.Surely not worth crying about!We lost
And where’ve been our so called business people/chambers of commerce and engineers to just have sat by watching the factory going down? We must all be a nation of dollar peddlers and cheap consumers of foreign goods not to have made efforts to mobilise revitalisation resourcesfor this once great factory.
The Mwata is right. That area needs development. Shopping malls are not development. How many people in that area will truly benefit. First create sustainable development and then a shopping mall. It is the government’s job to come up with plans.