THE Olympic swimming pool in Long Acres has not been sold but has been only leased out for development, Lusaka City Council (LCC) public relations manager George Sichimba said yesterday.
Sichimba said the local authority had observed with dismay reports in some sections of the media that the council had sold the Olympic Swimming Pool to Chinese nationals.
Sichimba said in a statement that LCC had only entered into a 14 – year lease agreement with Futsal Limited to develop the facility to international standards, emphasizing that the local authority had not sold the swimming pool and had no intentions of doing so.
“The lease is in the spirit of public private partnership (PPP) where government is encouraging public institutions to partner with the private sector to enhance service delivery,” Mr Sichimba said.
He said the LCC realised K30, 000 per month from the lease arrangement and that the sporting fraternity would be able to access better facilities once the improvements to the swimming pool were completed.
He said that the Chinese nationals who were found around the facility had been contracted by Futsal Limited to do some construction works.
Mr Sichimba said that so far Futsal Limited had put up modern Futsal playing fields and a change room.
He said Futsal Limited had big plans of constructing an ultra-modern indoor sports complex which would encompass a new swimming pool.
“LCC is hopeful that once the full construction plan is implemented, the council, Futsal Limited and members of the public will benefit from the partnership. The swimming pool remained idle for many years resulting in the local authority and the public not to realise any benefits from it hence, the decision to lease it out to a company with capacity to develop the facility,” he said.
Mr Sichimba said Indications were that this was one of the best lease agreements LCC had entered into so far. He charged that the emerging phenomenon of people peddling lies of council selling public properties such as markets and other properties when in fact not, was malicious and dangerous because it was causing unnecessary anxiety and anger in residents. He appealed to Lusaka residents and the sporting fraternity in particular to support the undertaking and other similar ventures aimed at improving standards of public properties.
To me… I see no difference. What is annoying is that we cannot develop this on our own but see sense in things like fire hydrants?
Even if you come up with su h defence, where is out pride?
You mean in other people to come and develope Zambia for us?
Try leasing your wife for 14 years. Come back and let us know how proud you are Sichimba!
Who are the shareholders of Futsal there are human beings behind it certainly ….and it doesn’t stop them from being Chinese . Mr PR Man your answer is neither here nor there
99 year lease is as sold. TAZARA has just been handed over to a chinese company. Avic controls the lazy drunkard & sponsors all PF elections. PF lungu chitenges were printed in china.
*is as good as sold
K30000? Per month For 14yrs,, what a stup!d arrangement,,,,., I don’t understand how desperately fooolish pf leadership is operating
My only hope is that we won’t have a situation where you have to be Chinese to access the premises. It’s just so sad that the so called “rich” in Zambia have no sense of community service. Instead of coming together to to maintain standards so their children and the community can enjoy, they rather be traveling to China, India, Dubai just so people can say balisungapo. Develop your own countries you cowards instead of waiting for the government to do it!
kikiki who are these chaps cheating? if you genuinly leased the facility then why not lease it for the remainder of your term in government so that when we win we can review the lease? Are you telling me that there are no zambian companies that can manage a mere swimming pool? This is a reflection of PF’s failure to prioritise local businesses. The chinese have lungu by hook and chain. You chaps thought you were independent kiki you are under chinese neo-colonialism. Hope you wisen up at the next elections.
“…He charged that the emerging phenomenon of people peddling lies of council selling public properties such as markets and other properties when in fact not, was malicious and dangerous because it was causing unnecessary anxiety and anger in residents…””
Sort out your public relations media teams…..
Always doing things in the dark of night or in corners and when public speculate ati causing anxiety……how many press statments did you release advising the public what you were doing ?
Its Aviv everything
*Avic
So will it be open to the public…that’s what is important.
Looking for Ha-Negative Hanswer to make HaNegative Comment.
New mayor kilometres sampa this is the first item on your agenda
That pool used to be affordable to the majority of Zambians who couldn’t afford luxuries. Handing over to these expats just makes it unaffordable. So who are we serving really???
And by the way… the pool has been closed for about 3 years! The period itself assumes Futsal to be a highly incapable company!
Says ba Kolwe, who have surplus Engineers in Zambia, they will soon be exporting to Kuwait, though these same Engineers cannot fix & maintain a simple swimming pool.
ONLY IN P.F’s DUNUNA ZAMBIA!
At the rate we re moving the government will soon tell us to lease our families if we re to survive in these hard days
Somehow,I am happy.
Us Zambians are busy politicking while our colleagues are putting resources together and literally taking over.
So,who is to blame?
The fact that we are busy insulting each other daily is a testimony of why we are losing out even on deals that can be conceived and put together by our high school kids not to mention our business graduates.
Everywhere,we go people are joining hands.
Stop bu$$iting us that you will come alive when that a$$hole HH is president.
So how did the so called futsal get this deal? Was it advertised or they went and asked for it? Maybe we as Zambians should also find dilapidated useful facilities and go quench a deal like so. Let’s get off our bottoms and be vigilant.