Last Wednesday, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela was guest on a Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation television programme dubbed Morning Live, where he announced that Government has come up with a policy called ‘Urban Renewal’.
According to Mr Chitotela, the policy is meant to enable Government build high quality and standard housing infrastructure in places like Kuku and Misisi townships.
Mr Chitotela said Government has decided to engage a developer to construct modern houses which will make the surroundings cleaner, which will help prevent outbreaks of diseases like cholera.
“We are informing the nation that we have a guest from Japan, the minister responsible for infrastructure development in that country, who has come to share ideas with us on many things regarding infrastructure development. We shall sign an MoU to work closely with our colleagues in Japan to better infrastructure in the country,” he said.
But Christine Chisanga, a 31-year-old resident of Kuku township, does not want to lose her family home, which she said has sentimental value.
“This house was built by my late father and my family and I have created so many memories in it. We have lived here most of our lives,” she said.
Others, however, have welcomed the plan.
Misozi Banda, 54, a resident of Misisi township, said the plan is welcome as it will help improve sanitation in the two townships.
“Some of the structures here were built before independence and they have outlived their lifespan and are not even habitable,” she said
Ba PF please listen to good advise. Go and find a new place outside Lusaka (don’t say there are no places because they are there) and build nice homes. Go and plan well and build better and reasonable housing for Zambian pipo. How do other pipo manage in their respective countries mwebantu please? Lusaka district is huge there is NO SHORTAGE of Land there. Go on, leave those misisi/kuku like they are because once you build new towns, those same pipo will move to those new places. There’s Chongwe, chisamba, Kafue, Mikango, shimabala and even in Lusaka west.
It is a good idea. In fact, Satan had promised to demolish these shanties and build decent houses within 3 months of being elected in 2011. That never happened. However, 100% of the residents will not afford the new houses and will have to move out and form new shanties somewhere else. If they could afford decent houses they would not be in shanties in the first place.
What project has PF started and completed? They have failed to complete their roads project now they want to demolish people’s homes.
With over 50 years of independence, 40 years of producing graduates from UNZA (civil engineers), you still need a foreigner ( Japanese) to help you build a house….shame….
The police protecting the President are better protected with helemets. That is why Kampyongo is not api.
What the Government should do is actually implement new boundaries so as to provide for services, then give the people chance or help them to build habitable structures. One thing we should understand is that it is better to spend a lot of money to clean up the shanty compound than continuously spend a lot of money annually on health, Economists call it Opportunity Cost.
Learn from the past that you may progress in future!
We don’t seem to have learnt a lesson from Dag Stadium in Ndola.
If really the government has plans why not just build a new compound from the scratch in a relocated area.
Residents must resist any attempts to demolish their homes before being shown new ones!
Everything including rubbish can have sentimental value. I just hope you don’t corrupt the project like SA has done to its RDP. Yaba! What an unrealisable hope!
This is welcome but let some neat low cost housing be built somewhere else and not in those areas mweh.
I am an ardent critic of PF, but on this one I agree with PF. Please start demolishing and bringing sanity to these places. Obviously you have to resettle people nicely as you rebuild. Because the settlements are so unplanned you have somebody’s pit latrine in almost somebody’s kitchen, not good for healthy, a lot of disease, no house numbers, you cant tell where a criminal stays. You are arriving from Copperbelt you have Chaisa welcoming you, you are arriving from Mongu you have Kanyama welcoming you, You are arriving from Chipata you have Kamanga welcoming you, you are arriving from Livingstone you have Chaisa welcoming you. Aikona man. Lets change this.
Demolishing and rebuilding is not the solution.Those people should be relocated to properly built low-medium cost houses(with proper roads,sanitation,security) away from the business district.
So if the PF have brains.First build the new communities and then convince the people to move there.
Its a very good idea to avoid perpetual cholera outbreaks. However, I feel a new place for these people would have been better so that misisi and kuku can be demolished and left to private developers as high cost area with different township names ofcourse. Chibolya should be included.
This is good, what’s wrong with Msisi folks? I hope they are not selling the plots to Japan for resettlement of their citizens running away from Donald Duck Trump!
The whole purpose of this is to push out the poor and the rich people will move in and build mansions. I have seen this happen in Maputo
I think that’s a good idea. Did the poor people really think that PF had their welfare at heart? These compounds now occupy some of the best real estate in Lusaka. The shanty dwellers should be pushed out to at least 30km from the CBD.
We want to see flats.. When are they going to be built in compounds?
Africans, are most blacks whose rationality is always doubtable …..how can they build within the city when actually should buy the plots and relocate them out of twn. Leaders lack insight .
I feel Chibolya should go first. What is it doing in the city centre?
Good idea, but it must be planed with all modern facilities and streets , drainage lines , play grounds , a sizable nice park and so on. Sanity must come to the city. I must say also that to accommodate all existing residents in the new reconstruction, multiple story houses should be a must, stop wasting land with little huts dotted about in the core of the city.
I hope its not just a story… Its a good idea only if there is a proper plan for relocation of the people in the area.