Minister of Tourism and Arts Charles Banda says Lusaka is once more viable as a tourism product worth visiting following the cleanup campaign.
Speaking when he toured the Central Business District yesterday, Mr. Banda said the city is looking very attractive and good enough for any local and foreign tourist to admire.
Mr. Banda commended President Edgar Lungu for the initiative to clean the city adding that the capital city has returned its actual position.
He also commended the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Ministry of Health and the defense forces for coming with full force following the Presidential directive
The Minister said the crowding and the unregulated vending made Lusaka appear like a village in a city.
There is now room for everyone to maneuver in town unlike the congestion that was in shop corridors that created some negativity about the city, said Mr. Banda.
He went on to check on Pick N Pay, Society Business Park outlet where he urged continued cleanness as it was a source of food for many including tourists.
Next direct the shop owners to Pave the passages and paint their shops and fix all those hanging objects.LCC must also light up the city and remove those roundabouts on cairo road put trafic lights instead.
Unfortunately come near to 2021 awe sure they will send the people to trade in the city corridors.
– Back in 2003, we took some tomatoes to Soweto market, and I was shocked how disgusting it was looking like. I though to myself, how about GRZ tells these traders to move out during the dry season and remove all stalls then concrete the area with Asphalt/or just cement (concrete) and construct a proper drainage system for the area including toilets. Then allow traders back and they pay for using the facility.
Today it is 2018 and this has never been thought of by the GRZ yet cholera every year ? Shocking indeed. Been dirt is not a result of been poor but a result of having excess. You throw litter because you have excess if not you would have to re-use it (recycle). Peace. Ala mwanding…
Peace. Ala mwanding if I were president ni rule of law mwana. You Zambians would hate me, because I would make sure that the law is above everyone including me & my wife. God bless Zambia.
Is this the way to attract tourists? You just wake up and say something without any plan. Zambian ministers are a shame.
Ba Charles Banda do not insult our people living in villages. Unregulated street vending makes Lusaka look like a shanty compound and not a village. Most Villages are cleaner that what Lusaka has been.
Wow. This is so funny, if not pathetic. There’s nothing to commend Lungu for here. This is what we the common people have been saying for years. It’s sheer common sense. Did you need to have a Cholera outbreak before realizing how important it is to keep the country clean? Because if that’s the case, then as soon as the Cholera is contained , it’ll be back to business as usual, i.e., mountains of garbage beginning to grow again. Keeping the country clean should be the lifestyle of a country, not just something you do when there’s an outbreak of a deadly disease. So if there’s anyone that deserves praise, it’s the ordinary Zambians everywhere who prodded this lazy administration to action.
Thanks to cholera!
Kanshi Ba Juliet muli baume..Ok!! Nonetheless, most of your comments if not all have objectivity.
Haibo! Kanti wena Juliet Perth you just gaying man?
What is our slogan for tourist, visit lusaka the cholera capital of Zambia.. list the tourist attractions as you are the tourism minister
The villages are clean, its the shanties that are dirty, please mr minister point of correction.
So this is when they have realised that that tourists are well informed before they visit a country and that a clean city with no vendors is viable for tourists? well good on you Charles Banda; shame to your Lusaka province minister and to Lungu and Sata who resisted the removal of the vendors. We did not need people to die to clean up the city or remove the vendors; now good to Lungu for accepting to take the right step; Never allow vendors on any street again; Lusaka has natural beauty which can’t be compared to many other cities; even Kigali can envy a clean Lusaka;
We could have done this akale. Good observation although you have spoiled it with your nauseating bootlicking phrasing of thanksgiving to the President. He just did his duty like you do every time you get one more tourist to come and damp their dollars in this dirty country.
wanted to say many other African cities
Another uneducated imbec!le pretending to be Minister. Does this intellectual non-entity understand his portfolio?
Is he pretending? He is a minister for a fact
With the brain functionality of uneducated imbec!le?
no no just dumm characters , no direction , little exposure is the problem
Usually international tourists come to see animals in game parks. But for local tourists from shangombo would like to see a clean Lusaka.
Cosmetic cleanup is all it will be.You’re still leaving Kamwala,Chawama,Misisi with bad roads,poor drainage,pit latrines and piles of garbage which still makes Lusaka a pighouse.
Just asking u are the one who is not educated.Charles Banda has Masters in Media and Communication studies.Research before attacking people.
When did he realize that clealiness can attract tourists?
Mr. Charles Banda! Minister without a mission and vision. Getting paid to do nothing while our wildlife is getting slaughtered by Trophy Hunters. These guys from Dallas Safari Club are still hunting our elephants, lions and leopards. A price tag of $US58,000 and Zambia sees nothing. Maybe our minister gets a cut including his permanent secretary. We posted something on their website siting the names of trophy hunters who are calling us Zambians ignorant, liars, uncivilized and uneducated. The ministers people marked our content as spam. Now, why would anyone do this? Are we too close to the truth? We have a white poacher by the name of Andrew Baldry on Facebook but we term poaching for white people as conservation. These guys are selling elephant ivory, Black Pantha head and hide still…
Most likely they’re getting a cut too. Sad. But keep exposing them though.
We just wait to see how long it will last.
With that type of mindset, it wont last long… see that you play your part to make it last instead!
Continuation: These guys are selling elephant ivory, Black Pantha head and hide still attached, including tables made from elephant skin on a trophy hunting website online. We sent info to the minister among countless other things but they flag our investigations as spam. Another Facebook page the tourism minister needs to visit where these hunters insult us is: Conservation, Hunting & Poaching in NRZ, Central Africa (GROUP). You will find white people who hate African’s but profit off Africa with wildlife being the new gold! Again, the minister is sleeping while we defend and continue fighting these poachers who will not rest till every lion, elephant, rhino, cheetah, buffalo etc. are all gone.
The CHAN soccer tournament starts over the weekend and if Zambia puts together a string of wins British commentators will be like, these guys are so good and most of them are from the filthy streets of lusaka where cholera is the order of the day and presently people are dying like flies.Then some guy will be on tv in pulsating heat yet dressed in a thick black suit with a poloneck dispelling those facts ati batisebania bamukukulu.
This is utter spineless on the part of the minister. Why wait now to voice out on the importance of cleanliness. If anything, it is only now that they can even talk about going to the place where some of us it was the order of the day to meander through shacks of vending. The whole town was one heap of chaos at a scare comparable to none. You can’t even say village because villages have some form of order despite the primitiveness. I will respect any minister expressing happiness about the state of Lusaka’s CBD now if they had publicly voiced their concern before the cholera outbreak and if possible resign on moral ground because as it is the president has been a serious defender of wanton vending and this whole thing stops at his door step. Alas, he is now being touted as a hero. He…
Extravagantly dull minister. Tourists are to visit Lusaka to see how clean the it is? Cholera=water contamination with fecal matter. Provide people with treated water and ensure proper disposal of fecal waste. Not rocket science? Is it?
The LCC needs to contract or hire permanent cleaners that are going to be on the streets from 6am to 18hrs. That’s the only way they are going to keep that city clean. Consistency is what we need, that will eventually stick in the minds of the people(Cleanliness). Come on Ba Zambia we can do this together.
Sure goes to show that we are third world, poverty striken Zambia, ONLY 1 crane on the skyline of the capital city!
Okay so pf believes tourists will be coming to lusaka to see how cleanliness look like, right? This tallies well with your plan to re intorduce zambia airways to provide air transport. Those tourists will surely be coming from filthy countries. Did you know that Before you came to power? City/town centres, inclusive of lusaka city, were clean until pf brought street vending? Today you are thanking yourselves for cleaning the dirty which you put there? you are taking people for fools right?
Let’s use this as a wake-up call. LCC should embark on a permanent keep Lusaka clean campaign. Start handing out fines to shop owners, vendors who refuse to clean up and paint their shops. We need standards and planning permission system to kick in. You have the powers, use them!
I agree with you. I think LCC should ensure rubbish bins distributed throughout CBD for starters for litter disposal then at the end of each business day let a truck empty the bins. It’s disappointing to see some people start mounting up unauthorized structures in some compounds barely a week since their demolition.
We should clean HH’s moth with detol too.
What about brushing your filthy arse with detol, and then your mouth?