Thursday, March 28, 2024

Zambia Army moves in and quells Kanyama riots as Kambwili condems Street Vendors removal

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ZAMBIA ARMY OFFICER PATROLLING THE STREETS OF LUSAKA

The Zambia Army has moved into Kanyama to quell the riots that have rocked the area.

Kanyama residents on Friday morning ran amok destroying property worth millions of Kwacha in protest against the removal of marketeers at Total filling station in the area.

The irate residents have also burnt a tipper truck and looted several shops in the area.

Police armed in full riot gear fought running battles with the protesters who threw stones.

Police led by Lusaka Division Commissioner of Police Nelson Phiri had a tough time to calm the rioters.

And addressing the rioters Mr Phiri appealed to them to removal objects used to block the roads but all was in vain.

And the traders complained that they were not warned and were surprised to see armed officers who told them to vacate the trading place.

Meanwhile, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Political Consultant Chishimba Kambwili has condemned government for removing street vendors in Lusaka’s central business district amid fears of the cholera spread.

Mr. Kambwili said that he has been to many countries which allow street vending and their streets are always clean.

Mr Kambwili said that the cholera outbreak in Lusaka and some parts of the country is as a result of the local authority’s poor attitude in waste management and not street vending.

Kambwili says Zambia is crumbling as a result of misplaced priorities and irresponsible leadership.

“Cholera was first reported in October and if this was a serious government they would have taken preventive measures back then.

“Now the poor are being punished because of an epidemic that is preventable. Instead of commissioning exorbitant priced roads and airports, as well as globe trotting and spending money on unnecessary things you could have prevented this by diverting that money into sanitation,” he says.

Kambwili said that the common man on the street is suffering.

“The poor marketeers and street vendors are now suffering because they are hungry, their livelihoods have been taken away from them in a flash and there is nothing worse than a government that does not prioritise the poor people.

And Home Affairs Minister Steven Kampyongo has directed Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja to ensure that the situation is put under control.

Speaking when he featured on Radio Phoenix’s Let the People Talk Program, Mr. Kampyongo says Mr. Kanganja should reinforce the officers to control the situation.

The Home Affairs Minister has also advised innocent residents in the area to remain indoors as the police deal with the rioters.

Meanwhile, Police Spokesperson Esther Katongo has refuted media reports suggesting that a police officer has been killed by irate residents in Kanyama during the riot.

Meanwhile, Government is set to connect Kanyama Township to piped water. Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Permanent Secretary Eddy Chomba confirmed the development when he signed a contract with China Civil Engineering to start setting up the water network.

Bishop Chomba says the project which is slated to be completed within the next seven months is meant to provide a permanent solution to the Cholera epidemic.

He says government is waging a war against Cholera which is why many stakeholders have come on board to fight it.

China Civil Engineering General Manager Eric Ding has promised the government and Zambians that he will do quality works on the water network.

Mr. Ding says his company’s partnership with Zambia has resulted in great works completed including the TAZARA railway line constructed about forty year’s ago.

94 COMMENTS

    • It is wrong to call in the Army for this kind of problem. Advisors advise properly.
      As for Kambwili you are part and parcel of the problem so just shut up you are just on a revenge mission because you can’t siphon money from those contracts you were getting purely by virtue of your former position in govt. You Kambwili are a lowlife that should be dealt with in court. As for the State we told you to prioritise the scarce resources any senior advisor who goes and spends the poor Zambians money on buying luxury SUVs just so they can feel important is directly to blame for this scenario, the people are demonstrating because they feel let down for not having proper structures in place to prevent cholera, they pay council levies, they pay tax be it TOT or even through VAT for the items they…

    • I trust this is under control.

      This shouldn’t be making news ladies and gentlemen

      My sources tell me this is not what it appears.

      It’s nothing to worry about. Now go back to work will you ?

      I hold a PhD

      Thanks

      BB2014,2016

    • Ctn… they pay council levies, they pay tax be it TOT or even through VAT for the items they sell and yet those funds go where? This is the anger they feel!
      What they are protesting against is the lack of proper guidance and governance. This should be a serious wake up call, if we continue with the madness of MPs receiving enormous gratuity, huge salaries and allowance for useless top govt civil servants such as Kaiser then we are headed for a complete doom. It is not sustainable the money the govt is spending on top govt officers is what is causing cholera, we will end up with something worse if we don’t bring sanity to these things.
      Its not the vendors fault, had the govt removed them earlier and created structures and sanitized facilities to encourage traders to go to the markets…

    • There is alot of street vending in New York City, even outside Trump Towers.
      And outside White House in DC, 99cents hot dogs.

    • If people still want to put themselves at risk of Cholera infection just quarantine that particular community and dont get medical care to them.

    • Who told these PF thugs that they must always resort to guns to solve a basic crisis management issue? I pray this doesn’t degenerate into another Marikana Mine scandal. For street vendors, taking them off the streets is a survival issue. They need answers, not guns.

    • “Meanwhile, Government is set to connect Kanyama Township to piped water. Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Permanent Secretary Eddy Chomba confirmed the development when he signed a contract with China Civil Engineering to start setting up the water network.”
      NOW THAT WE HAVE CHOLERA THE CHIPANTEPANTE GOVERNMENT WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. IF WE DID NOT HAVE CHOLERA THEN THEY WOULD HAVE NOT DONE ANYTHING.
      EDGAR HAS NO CLUE WHAT HE IS DOING SURE!

    • Kambwili is acting like an 1d1ot here. Totally unacceptable behaviour. Let us clean the country. Kambwili is the last person I would vite for. Totally ignorant and annoying.

    • This is a wrong move, even though well intended. You don’t suddenly deprive people of their livelihood with no substitute. If the government wants to do away with unregulated street vending, it has to be a gradual process. They need to build clean structures first, and then give people time to relocate. They do street vending in America too, but it’s well organized, in a clean environment. You also need a license to do street vending. For instance, If you intend to sell food in NYC, you have to obtain a Food Vendor License and a permit (From the Health Department) for the cart that’ll be used for selling food. There are approved carts that can be used to sell food, depending on the type of food. In fact, you have to take and pass a food handling course before you can even be…

    • (Continued)… given a license. Also you can only vend on designated streets, as some places are restricted. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from this. So the thing is, allow street vending, but make sure it’s orderly, well organized in a clean environment. In these shanty townships, some people sell food while standing in a pool of mud, uncollected garbage nearby, flies everywhere, sometimes even on the food, with the food itself placed on greasy makeshift wood structures. That’s a recipe for deadly diseases.

    • I hope this army is as civilised as that in neighboring Zimbabwe. I mean after cleaning up cholera and kanyama they should proceed to clean up state house. Just saying

  1. Government should have extended the Social Cash Transfer to all the Traders affected by Cholera. Government through Disaster Management should be proactive. You can’t throw People out of their means of incomes and you go back to State House to eat your free food.

    • If the is an allowance and space to let the military be part and parcel of the fight against CORRUPTION we might get somewhere in preserving the hemorrhage of looted treasury.
      The speed and vigor we unleash the military to quench the purported riots and so recently the fight against cholera did not call for EVIDENCE but symptoms! We have so many clues that state resources are being abused, adulterated, mismanaged, stolen, and plundered – some people [public officers + certain private citizen] cannot account for what they are spending and seem to have and/or own. The Penal Code, from way back in UNIP days, was used to systematically investigate these complex crimes via forensics. Today you want plain evidence from where when the commissioners of these crimes are and/or have a huge leg…

  2. Ba Kambwili please don’t use this for your political mileage our city has been dirty for too long and I think it is high time we did something to it whether this is triggered by Cholera or not. Yes vendors are there in most countries but they are clean but we are not! You are the poor who is makin* stupid Trump call our countries shitholes. Let us not encourage wrong things because we are benefiting from them. Let the marketers understand the need to have good hygiene when they do their businesses. You can not allow a situation where someone uses an empty chibuku container as a toilet? The government too is to blame!

  3. We will not develop as a country if we continue destroying anything around us. we can be political enemies, but let us learn to speak one language, which is development. Then we will see a better Zambia.

  4. Ba Kambwili please don’t use this for your political mileage our city has been dirty for too long and I think it is high time we did something to it whether this is triggered by Cholera or not. Yes vendors are there in most countries but they are clean but we are not! You are the poor who is makin* stupid Trump call our countries shitholes. Let the marketers understand the need to have good hygiene when they do their businesses. You can not allow a situation where someone uses an empty chibuku container as a toilet?

    • Why are these people you call poor actually poor? Lack of coherent policies with clear endpoints and deliverables!
      This PF Regime was founded on the “Pro-Poor” and “More-Money-in-the-Pocket” simply translated as Equitable Distribution of National Resources! Today the opposite is notorious evident. The Pseudo-Rich have become too Rich, and the Poor are now being denied a livelihood via and/or calculated guise of preventable and fake disease out-break projects like CIA Ebola!
      PF anchormen must reflect very seriously on this before they completely lose the grassroots to the opposition. I say so because there is enough time for damage control – ECL do not be blindfolded and/or allow State-Capture by known criminal elements; these extremely few elements did not vote you into office but…

  5. Was predictable. Cleaning cities is very good, but imposing curfews is not. What is the medical correlation between night and cholera spread? That bacteria move faster at night? When curfew was imposed, one could foresee that in a few days households would run out of food and burst in anger. There is nothing political here. During the luchembe coup in 1990 we starved for 3 days

    • Curfew is usually imposed in such situations to protect property and human life. People usually go on the loose in such situations, hence the need to control movements.

  6. We need cleanliness especially now for our own sake. Ba Kambwili please support this cause otherwise we will lose many lives. We have a common enemy now which is cholera! Let us work together

    • People are not refusing to work together and collaborate with the GRZ authorities but its hunger that which is limiting their thought-through direction. If we are say we need time to contain the epidemic of cholera via such interventions as closing down on the purported street vending, also extend the hand of free food and clean water as an emergency intervention under the DMMU in affected areas household to household. BE BOLD – BAPENI IFYAKULYA PERIOD

  7. These are the fruits of a wicked government. Cholera is not like malaria, it is the result when a government has neglected its people to live in filthy.

    • True… but same with malaria too.

    • Life Experience – It is not the duty of the government to see to it that you do not live in filth. Cleanliness starts with you – and you Zambians have a culture of being at peace with filth.

  8. CHI KAMWILI CHIPUBA SANA, STREET VENDING KWISA? U R THE IDIIOOTS THAT WERE MISLEADING THE LATE PRESIDENT MICHAEL SATA (MHSRIP), JUST BECAUSE YOU R BINGIZA(DUNG BEETLE) WHO LIKE TO PLAY IN AND WITH SHIT DOESN’T MEAN WE ALL DO,, WE NEED A CLEAN TOWN, CAMPAIGN FOR THEE VENDORS TO HAVE MARKETS BUILT FOR THEM NOT THE SHIT YOU ARE DOING HERE, PATAKO PAKO CHIKAALA KABWILI.

    OUR CITIES SHOULD BE CLEAN FROM VENDORS WHICH WILL AUTOMATICALLY MEAN CLEAN STREETS.

  9. 1. Mr. Kambwili be realistic. It was necessary to stop street vending in the face of this grave cholera threat. Don’t try to gain political mileage in tragic circumstances. We would appreciate you if you would take practical steps to assuage the suffering of the people, not just mouthing off.
    2. I agree with you that money is misappropriated because of selfish politicians.

    3. Why has this project to connect Kanyama to water been given to Chinese? Don’t we have engineering contractors in Zambia? All contracts now belong to the Chinese in Zambia. This is extremely sad.

    • Zambian contractors will do shoddy works or even abandon the works half way and cholera will come knocking at our door some more.

  10. Yes street vending is not good and they need to be removed, but you can’t just implement it overnight without giving the affected people an emergency alternative solution. Believe it or not, these people actually depend on street vending for their survival… take that away suddenly and you are causing a potential catastrophe worse than cholera. It has to be a gradual, long term process.

    If these vendors can’t feed themselves and their families they will turn into thugs and hardcore criminals that will execute aggravated robberies and break-ins so that can find money to feed… you better have good securities kuma yard in Woodlands and Ibex Hill where you live.

    These are the consequences of poor leadership, poor planning, corruption and everything else bad about this PF government…

    • These are the consequences of poor leadership, poor planning, corruption and everything else bad about this PF government. Unleashing security agencies on these people will just mask the big issue short term… a hungry man would rather die. I say be careful and find a solution to this double whammy!

    • Will you also comment on why markets are not full with vendors? Market spaces are there – it is the nonsense of a leadership that has allowed this scourge. It started with Chiluba.

  11. KambwHHiri, this is not time for politicking. Lets work together.

    Now we know the quality of opposition we have got. KabwHHiri, and many another politicians, lease shut up. You have just proven that you are empty tins.

  12. Even HH did not try to stoop so low as to try get some political mileage. As a mature politician, he has called for calm. His party is even participating in donating materials, without trying to gain free campaigning, which he could have provoked. He could go to kanyama and say bad things about PF. But he exercised maturity.

    Meanwhile fat Kambwili who has donated nothing, and was a lapdog of this very PF, Kambwili who was part of the road contracts, just starts yelping like a rabid dog.

  13. Just give them relief food during this period. A bag of mealie meal, beans, cooking oil and sardines (kapenta) would do. Killing them by starving is not any better than killing them by cholera! Napita mukwai

  14. Whoever is standing up to condemn government’s efforts to curb this scourge and clean the city must have his mental capacity checked. Kanyama residents must know that they are not the only area which has come under trading restrictions, so are some places on the copperbelt and even Lusaka. surely how do you trade in an environment which is being threatened by a deadly disease, do you feel for yourselves and your families? As for Kambwili we are no longer taking you seriously because whatever you vomit out of your mouth is just trash. Any politician worth his salty must be more quick to provide a solution/supplement government efforts and less quick to play blame games against the government. This is unZambian and an unethical conduct.

  15. Do you blame Donald Trump for calling our countries sh!tholes with the kind of Kambwili? Don’t look just one metre before you, look up to million kilometres because one you may just inherit the problem you’re creating today. Then if by chance you become president, you’ll spend five years blaming the previous government for the mess you created because of selfishness.

  16. Take the law-breakers to court so they are locked up. We should not be like a country without laws. If we continue allowing people to break the law with impunity we will become a failed state like Somalia. Cage the culprits! We want sanity in our city.

    • @ 23 Chief Bootlicker

      The law breaker-in-chief is Edgar Lungu himself. Had he executed his duties as president, none of this would have arisen. He must be prosecuted for ineptitude and gross negligence.

  17. DON’T AGREE WITH LAWLESSNESS, SO YES ORDER SHOULD BE RESTORED BY THE ARMY!!
    However this is a an OWN GOAL, & lesson to visionless Jona, his Corrupt P.F, or any future Government!!
    You invested in False Economy, by allowing Cadres & Vendors to do as they please, for votes, & as a result law & order totally broke down under P.F. Councils were NOT allowed to function properly, or collect funds, as Mposa Mabwe’s like Chama told cadres to run things. THE RESULT WAS FILTH, LAWLESSNESS & CHOLERA, & P.F, is now paying a higher Price than they bargained for.
    P.F BEWARE! These same thugs you enabled, could UNSEAT You!!
    Remember Mob power that unseated the once Indomitable KK???

    • As for Toad Chimbwili, 2HUT UP!!
      You are a Filthy opportunist who, was part of all this till the day you were unceremoniously booted out of the same PF you helped make corrupt & defended coz of Corrupt tenders You enjoyed @ the time. If Zambians are fooled by Chi Kambwili aka Chimbwili, I GIVE UP!!

  18. Even laying water pipes to Kanyama you need to call a Chine construction company? Is this just another PF overpriced contract?

  19. Cholera or no cholera, these street vendors need food. That is their number one priority, not to be shot at and killed by the army.

  20. Twist an arm and it will kick back … People are now hungry. Plan for them ASAP. Too much land just being wasted. The laziness of street vending, begging and selling peanuts should stop! ECL wake up from HO and realize that ZED is one of the richest countries with natural resources.

  21. “…..Meanwhile, Government is set to connect Kanyama Township to piped water. Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Permanent Secretary Eddy Chomba confirmed…”

    Kambwili is right, after spending $17 billion, hundreds of thousands of people have no clean drinking water , right in the capital lusaka where the corrupt theif lungu lives ……this is a disgrace and you wonder why trump calls you a shity country ???

  22. …..Meanwhile, Government is set to connect Kanyama Township to piped water. Ministry of Water Development, Sanitation and Environmental Protection Permanent Secretary Eddy Chomba confirmed…”

    Kambwili is right, after spending $17 billion, hundreds of thousands of people have no clean drinking water , right in the capital lusaka where the corrupt theif lungu lives ……this is a disgrace and you wonder why trump calls you a @#$!$# country ???

  23. Kambwili trully sounds like a graduate from Copperstone University. Just the proper university to attend for someone who built his wealth on copper cathodes pilfered by his Jerabo gang.

    See him endangering public health by encouraging street shiiting!! Alase.

  24. IF THIS MOVE WILL DENY PF A VOTE… THEN PF WILL GO WITH HONOURS… WE NEED TO BRING ORDER AND CLEANLINESS TO OUR CITIES..
    IF WILL GIVE PF A VOTE IN 2021.. IT WILL BE FOR THIS SOLE REASON.. REMOVING VENDORS FROM OUR STREETS..

    • Honours for failing to deal with cholera since October 2017 when the first case was reported, you are full of mediocrity iwe, echo mu votela ifyapalasti.

    • But, PF is the one that brought vendors onto the streets in the first place, as a reward for voting out MMD. So, you will be rewarding them for sorting out a problem which they, themselves created?

      What retrogressive thinking!

  25. Ladies and gentlemen. If anyone of you think that any future government or political party will provide better leadership and management to the nation’s affairs then you’re in for a rude shock. Things will keep on getting worse so as for God’s word to b fulfilled. This includes any one who takes up any government position. Do not be misled by cheap political promises which are never fulfilled after elections. It’s the same all over the world. The solution is to look to God for solutions, not rioting. Riots never put food on a poor man’s table but just enriches the pockets of the already rich but greedy politicians. Let’s think twice before destroying the little we have. God help our nation.

    • This is part of our problem as Zambians; we have very low expectations from our leaders. Therefore, we fail to hold them accountable. They steal millions of our money, and we ask no questions of them.

      They kill the Post Newspaper, which used to ask the right questions for us, and we find that acceptable. What a shame!

    • You can’t just watch corruption reaching unthinkable levels, you see it, fire tenders, ambulances, the projects for making names ati PF did this, needy basic areas completely forgotten. How do you build first class airports when some townships are extremely under developed, it’s like owning a latest Range Rover car but you live in a one bedroom house somewhere in senior compound in Ndola. The government should operate within reasonable means. I don’t think the frequent president’s trips around the world can’t be financially supported without a thought of a more pressing need some where within range. If you are not a leader you will take things as normal.

  26. CK just pay back the money before we take you seriously, you illegally got money during the election period.

  27. Iwe please help me locate the whereabouts of Father Bwalya and Madam Nkundu Luo… Is it true that they are next in line to be chased by this RB via Lungu PFMMD government?

  28. Kambwili is supporting street vending simply because CK is also a street vendors. Chishimba has people selling goods for him on the streets of Chingola. Ask anyone in the corridors of power in Chingola. He is a beneficiary to street vending. And if the likes of Chishimba has a following as leader of a political country, our country will never develop.

  29. If we assess comparison between HH and Kambwili (+Kalaba), I think HH was more mature in his response to the deadly cholera epidemic. Kambwili will always be a rubble rouser and he does not care for our precious lost souls – as the man is simply a “styupit” primitive insensitive politician.

  30. Can Kambwili deny that one of the officials in NDC was convicted for printing leaked examination papers and that Kambwili paid for his release…..he was given the option of a fine or jail term.?

    • Off topic…….corrupt PF have spent billions yet hundreds of thousands of people in the capital city have no clean drinking water……they are now dreaming of an airline yet the corrupt theif in state house does not know people are drinking dirty water ???

      What an embarrassment……and sad indictment of a corrupt over spending leader leading a gang of theives …

  31. KC you are the biggest fool this is the problem with cheap politicians. You want to bring politics of dirty again. Foolish you….

  32. Kambwili is an *****! Just shut up, bird-brain! This is not time for politicking! Just because you are out of government you want to pretend that you care for the poor? Moron!

  33. Ba Kambwili just shut up. This cholera problem is real and we all knew this is what would result from the senseless allowing of street vending. Now that the problem has reached these levels and people are dying from cholera which is as a result of poor sanitation, the best way you can help the situation is by being realistic. Wake up and understand that this is a health problem so don’t try to.politicize it. If you do that more people will lose their lives. And you will have blood on your hands for encouraging such lawlessness. Sober up and give realistic advice for the sake of Zambia. That way you might even get yourself a few votes.

  34. Ummm Mr kambwili behave yourself, it’s people who like you who come from other provinces and make pronouncements like yours that turned this city into a huge garbage dump, am very certain the place you come from is nice and clean. Those of us who are born and raised in this city are happy with the move whether we like the president or loath him, if you are so eager to see vending back, you are free to offer them streets in luanshya to go and trade from.

  35. People from sh1thole compounds will always do sh1t. They create cholera for all of us because they want us all to die. We are all poor because of selfish men like CK.
    We just need to quarantine them to their sh1thole compounds and let them exchange cholera as they wish.
    As for CK he is the biggest sh1thole on this planet and the last f.ool to comment the way he is commenting.
    Disaster!!!

    • With that thinking, you are a big sh..hole. You are part of the problem. We have had several governments in that country; all of them have failed to provide conducive environments for job creation. This has resulted in that conundrum the country is facing. Now, people with small brains like you start using vile language.

    • Are you sure? Good Army’s have generals whose thinking power, analysis of situations, should be towards saving people they protect wholly from the genesis. Are they seeing things differently?

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