Lusaka Mayor Wilson Kalumba has maintained that the city council will go ahead and introduce a Garbage Fee to be collected through phone air time recharge.
Mr Kalumba said the Fee will go towards effective management of solid waste in the capital city.
He said his office has just completed consultations with phone companies over the introduction of Garbage Fee for Lusaka residents.
“When you have a post-paid land line or mobile phone the phone companies earn the money when you make a call. However, I have found a different practice regarding prepaid accounts,” Mr Kalumba said.
He continued, “They consider to earn the money immediately when you purchase air time even if you have not made a call. This will create a challenge for council to collect garbage fees from airtime value. I want this practice to be changed so that phone companies earn money on prepaid accounts when calls are made.”
“Accounting gurus what is your view? Customers what do you think? My office has just completed consultations with phone companies who indicate that they can support with their various payment solutions but this is one matter that needs resolving,” he said.
“Am trying to remove the need for a resident to make the decision when to pay, but enforce auto pay.”
Please don’t punish people for communicating. The city should find other ways of fundraising like charging street vendors, fining unpainted or dirty business houses to promote cleanliness etc
Lusaka is dirty. Residents need to contribute one way or another to clean up the city. I think to his is a good idea.
Maureen Mwanawasa hard great strategies on how to clean up Zambian Mogadishu. Unfortunately her ballot papers were stolen by PF and dumped in same trash Wilson has failed to clean up. Maureen got so insulted, she couldn’t even petition such insults.
So Kalumba ask your councillor Tasila to go get money from her former-father at state house, where we just heard doors are stacked with presents from investors.
Hooray. This will teach Zambians what community responsibility is. You pay for services they dont just happen!
How is it punishing? We need the freakin city to be clean. It is about time.
He is out of his mind.
Thanks
Bb2014,2016
You just detained the guy with good ideas at Mukobeko
My appeal to Zambians is Dont allow this!!! This is illegal and a way of stealing money from us. The law is very clear on how councils operate and where they should get money for providing such services as rubbish collection.If you have failed to implement what the law has mandated you then I am sorry this is a wrong path you want to take. For example, u are mandated to collect land rates, do you do it? NO. Why?? The only reason is you as councils has failed to sit down and come up with the best strategy of ensuring that land rates are collected monthly. Imagine how many houses are in Lusaka and if each house was to pay land rate every month. That money will be enough to clean the city. You want to us to pay land rates and also get our money through talk time? for what?
People should pay for plastic bags when they go shopping in Spar, Pick and Pay, Shoprite and other such places.
And you know what? Some of the residential places like Kabanana Site and Service have a service of garbage collection. A company, which has the blessing of the Council, collects garbage from house to house and they pay a substantial amount of money every month-end. Does it mean this service will be suspended? Because residents can not afford to be paying double (to the garbage collection company as well as to the Council via mobile phone). Balakwa chani bantu? Money is very hard to come by.
@ 1.2 Nostradamus,
Even Donald Trump had big ideas to implement when he was campaigning.
But theory is not as tough as practice because the former may face no obstacle when carrying out where as the latter does.
What foolish idea by dull Lazy people…first they tell you dupe you that you need to register your phone then slap additional charges!!
Now Zambians will feel the PF lootimg directly in no money in their own pockets!
Before it was only looting of borrowed KALOBA money that only needs to be repaid after 2021.
But now it is straight forward theft that they can see and feel for themselves!
When are Zambians going to say enough of Lungu and his corrupt clowns?
In the FIRST PLACE THE COUNCIL MUST EXPLAIN HOW IT USES MONEY (REVENUES) COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS PAYMENTS: Parking fees, Land rates, Market Stalls etc! We thought land rates and service charges are intended to cover services included waste management?? EVEN THAT ASIDE, WHAT ACCOUNTABILITY MEASURES ARE YOU GOING TO PUT IN PLACE TO ENSURE THAT MONEY SO COLLECTED IS USED FOR INTENDED PURPOSES AND THOSE PAYING ARE NOT BEING OVER CHARGED TO PAY FOR INEFFICIENCIES AND THE COUNCIL’S EXCESSES (LARGESSE)! IT IS NOT ONLY MONEY BUT THE WISDOM OF HOW WE USE THE RESOURCES!!
Its about time cuz Lusaka is dirty ,Lusaka is filthy and chaotic .Lets do away with those dirty road side hawkers too they bring trashy culture .
Lusaka is NOT filthy, its just chaotic.
New York city is clean, organized garbage collection next to where you eat in Chinatown . Stinking subways, graffiti, homeless people, that’s FILTHY.
Learn to understand meanings of life words.
Great idea.just don’t understand the timing issue raised.why should it matter from a revenue collection perspective?
What is so great about this potential robbery? Wait & see if your garbage will be collected. These councils have already hiked rates more than 400% and what has changed to the services offered. Let us have a townhall meeting and take them to task and agree on key performance criteria or else we don’t pay.
So owning a simple phone will cost you extra on top of the rip of tarrifs you are paying in Zambia!!
@4.1 Jika, SPOT ON, my thoughts too!!
@jay jay & jika, you people live abroad going by the flags, please look at you cell phone bills and tell me how many taxes and fees you see on there? May in UK phone companies are not required to disclose this information to their customers. But all the same, there plenty of fees and taxes that local municipalities and Govt collect through our phone bills.
The issue should be putting pressure on the council to make sure the money collected is used exactly for what they say it is for—garbage collection! That’s what ‘positive civic engagement’ ought to mean. Not just yaping for the sake of it!!!
Yambayamba
There is a reason why I called this Lazy thinking.If you want to really clean Lusaka or Cities and Towns you have to think smart you can not simply put a tax on technology which has nothing do with refuse/ garbage. Are you telling me a household of five will all pay for garbage collection including kids with mobile phones essentially the parents paying twice? For crying out loud its 2017, if you want to clean up Lusaka…work with ZRA who have invested heavily in ICT..slap a tax on plastic bags, wraps, tetra pack usage ..this will not only be a revenue stream for councils but also reduce waste (unnecessary plastic bags usage).
What foooolish idea by dull Lazy people…first they tell you dupe you that you need to register your phone then slap additional charges!!
Lusaka residents will have no choice… = DICTATORS will now tell Zambians what they will have to do !!!
Just pay or you will end up in JAIL. YOUR MONEY is no longer YOURS. It belongs to Lungu and his PF.
This is a good idea.just do it the way ZNBC collect TV levy.if properly handled,this money can help in keeping Lusaka clean!!put it at K5 per month.
What nonsense! There’s no link between airtime and cabbage collection. That is running out of ideas and targeting a wrong market. Try with electricity bill bcoz it has a physical dwelling fixed to a locality. If we can’t come up with own reasonable ideas, we don’t have to reinvent the will but copy from other local authority administration of councils to avoid such embarasments.
Even mere school kids (plus their parents) will be charged a council tax…what folly…really laughable.
You are better off asking your friend in Katete to register a SIM for you!!
@Dimms, yes your idea sounds reasonable and preferred in city/country where all or the majority households are connected to electricity. But that is NOT the case with Zambia, Lusaka city included. So collecting garbage fees only from those with electric bills will only manage to capture a small segment of the city population when the majority live in shanty compounds with no electricity but generate garbage in the city just as much, if not more!
But one thing you can count on is that even shanty dwellers have cells, at least the majority of them. And they need and want their garbage collected. This idea cuts down on free-loaders for this important city service!
Why should everybody be made to pay for garbage generated by street vendors? This is a sick joke. I pay a contractor for the garbage I generate from my home. It is so very unfair!
Another additional to the cost of doing businesss…this is what happens when you vote for utter empty tins!!
for Lusaka alone it cant work, maybe country wide. first maximize revenue by introducing electronic receipts at bus stations, market’s, car parks and toilets this Will make the council account for 98% of money. rite now alot of pilfering of money collected by council workers because the system being used is weak
the funds wont be used for the intended purpose,this is a ploy,the local govt will reduce financial remittance to the local authority and with the burden of $30 billion,pf has heaped on us.can lusaka residents block this nonsense in our courts?
A typical example is Toll gates where funds are being misappropriated…which major road project has this govt self funded.
Lusaka residents should fire their mayor for gross incompetence! Isn’t this the chap who was telling ZESCO to burry Pylons? This is the trouble with partisan voting. You always end up with the wrong chaps in office. We can’t accept to start subsidizing lawlessness. We told you, remove your street cadres from our streets and there will be sanity but you continue to be adamant about maintaining the status quo for political expediency. Ask your cadres to clean their own mess or vacate the streets! It’s as simple as that!
What about those who already pay through garbage collection companies? Are they not being charged twice?
This should have been charged directly to building owners ,plot owners and business owners inside Lusaka jurisdiction.
We already pay K70 per month and we will have nothing to do with cleaning Lusaka. It’s filthy and we won’t allow ourselves to subsidize LCC the way we have been forced to subscribe the blather at ZNBC against our individual wills.
For me MR man revenue accounting in telecom is standardized.
So it does not matter at what point u realise a value. SO you must be happy and ask them to give a value only for calls made within lusaka cells not on sales value. Coz I can buy and use it in Lukanga
Lusaka residents start buying air time from other towns. This will only harm mobile phone company Lusaka sales
This is tax of technology…simply putting ourselves on a disadvantage again …this is what happens when you vote for clueless beings who can type a letter on MS Word.
*This is a tax on technology…
i think the lusaka mayor was just joking and reporters took it seriously. one can come up with such wild thinking.
Initiative is OK worried about long hands
@JJ, it is fine, nothing will ever be good for you in your Namwala Kingdom! It is good that Hazaluza Hagain!
You have absolutely nothing nothing whatsoever to contribute here..you are barking on the wrong tree if you me to talking about silly opposition leaders …you are like BUFFOON CK who was busy name calling and bootlicking… look at him today he has no where to run to but Facebook as all independent media outlets have been fixed.
Wake up!!
are you afraid to collect a k1 from the vendors who dirty the town? why hit on innocents? collect from the vendors.
What’s the connection between making a call and garbage collection? Not following. If I have to tackle the phone issue separately. Although the phone company already have your money you can still sell the airtime to someone else. Perhaps the issue should be why not exchange various providers’ airtime. The airtime should assume currency status.
Yes, like a BUFFOON in Namwala? You are right!
Aba amambala ayamba kutiloba muma kabudula ama bamba lomba. Nikudelelana uku lomba. Alute kuli bala ogulusila mumiseu. Ndiye oleta uve na dothi amenebala bakuita kuti ma kada. Osa vutisha seo yayi. Nindeo yumufuna iyi lomba mweo. Mau ba akulu onzuna akagonela.
Bushe mwe bena Zambia, how did you end up with this bunch of clueless people?
I don’t understand the leaders we have we anymore. To my understanding as citizens we are hammered with alot of taxes that we need to settle with our hard earned Insufficient income earned. If u look at the take home is barely not even enough to see u through the month. The point here is, for council to come up with this idea, are they telling us we need to pay for something the majority residents of Lusaka re already paying for. I say so we pay land rates, electricity, water and phone bills etc. Ideally the authority would have come with strategies like 1. In town let the businesses unities meet those cost. 2. The vendor’s are just too many I am our streets, and from this the authority does collect alot of money not mentioning bus station. 3.
Its a real shame that people can seat in a meeting room to brainstorm issues and conclude that this is the best form of revenue collection…yet the selfsame people will not dare to remove street vendors!!
Bad bad idea it will penalize even those phone users who visit Lusaka on a temporal basis.Lets charge it to full time residents and tie it to either water bills ,land rates or user fees for hawking + other businesses.
Aba bena ba mayor amano tamwaba.U want all pipo to start paying garbage fees?U have failed terribly bamudala.why did u bring dat use—–ss south africa compay to charge all pipo who park in towns.Bwafya mulasata.anyway continue making lungu unpopoular.2021 muleya otherwise we are tired .this is not the party we knew nga PF.Toll gate everywhere,road taxes increase,everything and airtime .kwena ba lungu be careful with such pipo who have no ideas in govt.
Ba Mayor??? a former Bank of Zambia employee. Somebody needs to recall this man. Twasebana mu Zambia.
Imwe ba Mayor or is it Mayo?
1. What about families who have multiple phones, they pay mire than others?
2. Are you going to reduce property rates by the same amount?
Awe mwe ba Council mwashupa, chimofye naba UPNDonkeys no difference yet no similarity.
Ci Terrible chaliba DULL, kuli chena fyonse ma politics. Iwee c1kala life is not just about PF. You like it or not PF will one day be out of government and what you fear most will confront you- “njala izakunyokola”.
Someone says this happens even in the UK. Not directly. Phone companies pay tax which obviously feeds into general services. People would be up in arms if they were told there is a compulsory fee for garbage from your phone bill. In the UK households pay council tax and business premises pay rates to cover garbage collection, fire emergency services and the police call outs.
It is agreeable that Lusaka needs cleaning. It is the methodology that is critical. Why has it come to this? Have people stopped thinking? What was the situation in the past when garbage was collected diligently? When things change, (e.g. sell of council houses, more commercialisation etc.) you sit and consider the consequences and plan.
I did NOT say there is a garbage fee/tax tagged onto the phone Bill in the UK. But there are certainly taxes/fees collected through phone bills nearly everywhere on plant earth. What those taxes/fees differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, or country to country.
If the LCC feels that the best and most inclusive way to collect a garbage fee from as many Lusaka residents as possible is through tagging the fee to a cell phone bill, what the heck is wrong with that? When the majority of Lusaka residents get connected to the electric grid or water connection to their homes, this can then be switched onto those bills. But currently most Lusaka residents are neither connected to the grid or water at the household level. THAT IS MY POINT!
There are questions that we need to seriously consider before decisions are made to do with the councils.
– Where should residents, businesses throw their garbage? – Who should be responsible for managing it? How much and to whom should they pay for the collection service? – This includes all formal and informal areas where inevitably there will be garbage disposal – who can afford to pay, and what do you do with those who cannot? Are there arrangements that can be made for sustainable community involvement in waste disposal?
But at a policy and governance level (as someone pointed out above) how is the revenue currently collected used? We have to deal with unnecessary expenditures, excessive allowances/privileges etc. for officials. The planning of Lusaka is haphazard. That needs to…
… change. Do we have disciplined work ethics?
Isn’t city cleaning paid from taxes?
Mr can you tell people what land rates and business rates are used for ???? Or are they not collected or are they all stolen ???
Instead of only using the unemployed kaponyas who are on every street corner to attack the opposition steal council plots and take over public places, train them to be street marshals to ensure garbage is disposed of in an ordaly manner by the public.
what about the people who do not live in Lusaka, will they also be charged? is this technology only be working for people with phones registered in Lusaka only? that being the case what happens when you have been transferred from Lusaka….reregister again? Mr Mayor think smart and just put your house in order…..
Madness at its best baMayor.
Madness ! Send out bills via e-mail, sms and people must then go into payment points and pay why deduct from airtime !
I think lusaka city council should consider working with Zesco,Airtime will be very difficult to manage
coz of so many factors which the local authorities will have no control over ie migration.
And they should explain how the program will be operated,I see prime areas benefiting more than our compounds.
I have no objection to this idea.
Great and timely move. The city is too duty.
foolishness at its best…it wont even got to garbage collection but to pay salaries
This Lusaka mayor is a joke and he continues to prove just how incompetent he is every day! For as much as Lusaka city needs cleaning, this is not the way to go about it. Phone companies are already reaping us apart and he sees it wise to add more taxes to it. Great way to De-campaign PF!
The fact still remains, theres a lot of revenue that the council already collects which they should account for before coming up with such blanket lazy ideas. Where are the objective NGOs in Zambia to take on this lazy mayor! We have toll gates now but still pay road tax, fuel levy etc and that revenue is still not accounted for! So Mr mayor, lets see the books of what you are already collecting before thinking of more taxes!
This is most arrogant fool I have ever seen as mayor….What will happen if a Lusaka resident buys talk time outside Lusaka the catchment area? How is the mobile provider going to filter the one paying and not? It means talk time will be expensive than it is…. This fool does not have to impose these expenses on the innocent Zambians who are paying high taxes on other things already….The best way was to work with Zesco just like ZNBC does not airtime, This ***** should explain how the program will be implemented before imposing it on us. Ngatwakuna ati baletwikata twalufyanya, PANYO!!!
This is definitely a no-brainer. Mobile phone usage does not generate garbage to want such a tariff or surcharge. The municipal authority should levy plastic shopping bags that are indiscriminately dished out by majority of our shops; disposable glass and plastic bottles and other packaging that is not intended for re-use. This suggestion is akin to forcing teetotalers (non-drinkers) to subsidise the liquor bills of imbibers.
In the area where I stay a company acting on behalf of the council collects the rubbish and we pay for each load as agreed in the contract. Wondering how many times we shall be made to pay for the one and same service. Have you collected all the land rates from property owners? Have drive along Chawama road where rubbish has been removed from drainage and placed on the road? Am sure this was done so the council can see the rubbish but alas they are blind.
INTERCITY BUS TERMINUS MAKES A LOT OF MONEY, WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO? =CADRES POCKETS, AND YOU KALUMBA YOU WANT TO START STEALING POOR PEOPLES MONEY THROUGH TALKTIME, THINK TWICE.
Mental failure at its worst forms. Mr Mayor, if you can do the things below I would be glad to pay via my airtime;
1. Remove all the street vendors and relocate them to markets.
2. Give us audited accounts of how you are using the money from all the levies and fees being collected in Lusaka.
3. You will be collecting my domestic garbage that is currently being collected by a private contractor.
4. Take over management of all bus stations in the city.
If you can’t do the above, you should start thinking of retiring to your village.
Just remove street vendors
I can run LUSAKA CITY COUNCIL better than the current management. Let ECL appoint me town clerk today and Lusakans will see what I can do.
First ,I will deal with intercity bus station and other bus stations.
Second I will serious collect levies , rates and other fees for the country.
Deal with building inspection fees in Lusaka.
Scrutiny of Contracts made by the council.
I don’t have a PHD like Mushota……
It is doable act and Lusaka can be clean.
MEANING IF YOU USE ALL THE FOUR NETWORKS IN ZAMBIA YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PAY FOR GARBAGE MGT 4TIMES PER DAY/WEEK/MONTH. YOUR WORSHIP, RECONSIDER THIS MATTER.
Just imagine! I have Airtel account, MTN as well as CelZ. Does it mean I shall be paying through all the 3 accounts? How much money will this be? Ala mwandi ba Meya, think twice before you effect such day-robbery act.
Clearly this mayor has failed and needs help. Lusaka people, can we please push for a town hall meeting to share ideas on how we can solve some of the problems affecting our DIRTY city. Waiting for these people in power is a waste of time… it is almost a year from our last general election and some leaders have not yet presented a clear road map to warrant their continued stay in office… this is criminal! Zambia deserves better and we need to have an honest conversation here. Mr Mayor if you are unable to inspire your people, it is just fair to give room to someone else.
Will they be collecting garbage even in komboni areas? They have not even told us how much they will be deducting from our talk time.I hope this is not another way of stealing people’s money
Garbage collection is something that needs serious debate, even if the so called paying fees through via talk time as the mayor has purported. We still zero in to the issue of Garbage trucks and dumpsites which have not enough to cater for the entire Lusaka province. It was only a few days when the same Mayor suggested that Lusaka residents should consider cremation as the substitute due to luck of land, now the same Mayor is busy campaigning for fees for garbage collection which in clear sense will not have a place to be dumped.
All he should be talking about is scouting for a serious investor who can recycle some of the garbage so that the little land remaining within or around Lusaka can not be filled up with filth. The issue of garbage is a serious one which needs to be debated even…
Good idea but deal with route cause, STREET VENDING first. Ignore negative comments but WE WILL DEMAND FOR A CLEAN LUSAKA.
Meant Root and not route@49
Mr Mayor, go to Mandahill, East Park, Levy Mall, Garden city then go to Kamwala Market, City Market, Lumumba road and see for yourself the differences in garbage disposal and collection mechanisms employed by mall managers and the adhoc ones by Lusaka City Council and the vendors. That will give you some idea of where to start from in your noble quest to clean the city.
Am already paying K100 per month to a private company (complying with the council requirements) for collecting garbage from my house every week. What will the council replace this role with
Ba mayor don’t you think it’s daylight robbery think straight
The council has to look at those markets run by cadres and doesn’t help the council instead of charging innocent people, not fair
@ 1.2 Nostradamus,
Even Donald Trump had big ideas to implement when he was campaigning.
But theory is not as tough as practice because the former may face no obstacle when carrying out where as the latter does.
This guy is intelligent he knows what to do, yes indeed those are Lusaka residents who should pay for their services.
It is the only way it can be done effectively I do agree with him.
Better other councils learn from this man.
The problem with Zambians they only like to complain about everything , there is nothing for free how do you expect the city to be clean when you don’t pay those who sweep the streets.
Nothing works without inputs for any food you eat someone must have paid a price.
In the civilised world that is how it works every one pays for serves .
There are currently a lot of things that we can’t manage. Both manually and technologically. How on earth is this system going to work? People have multiple phones, change phones all the time, move from town to town, have several phones in one household, buy airtime for girlfriends/boyfriends etc. Who will actually be paying for what garbage? This idea amounts to GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT.
For this to work, you firstly need systems that identify who is who, lives where, does what business where and for what. I don’t mean a snoop charter. I mean a council data base capturing who is responsible for what, according to their residential/business status. That is why I earlier alluded to the haphazard planning of the city, if at all there is any planning. We have people building without permission, doing business without any links to services or tax systems, acquisition of land without proper processes and all manner of dodgy dealings. If the city is planned, you will know who needs to be where for purposes of service provision and revenue collection.
Maybe this Mayor made a decision after a heavy drinking spree. There are a lot of avenues which council can use to generate money and clean the city unlike transferring the burden to already straggling residents.(not all but some big percentage)This is a result of voting someone based on what party he/she represent instead of a person’s capabilities,innovations,scope,industrious in knowledge etc can bring to the ford.