The Lusaka City Council (LCC) says it is waiting for the government through the ministerial committee to allocate a piece of land where a new burial site for the city can be established.
LCC Public Relations officer George Simuchimba said a new burial site has not yet been found as the local authority is waiting for the responsible ministerial committee to identify a new burial site in the capital city.
Mr Simuchimba said the committee which comprises the ministries of Local government, Lands and Home Affairs is responsible for identifying a new cemetery following the depletion of burial spaces at Leopard hill, Chunga and Chingwere cemeteries.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka, Mr Simuchimba said the council has no powers to look for burial sites outside Lusaka saying such responsibilities lie in government officials at higher levels.
And when asked about the comments by Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa’s statement to the media that negotiations were underway to secure land in Kafue district for a burial site, Mr Simuchimba declined to comment.
“It is beyond our jurisdiction, Kafue is another district, and we do not have the powers to go to Kafue. That is why the matter is being addressed at that level,” he said.
Recently, Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa said LCC was negotiating with Kafue council to secure land to open up new burial sites for the city following the filling up of the existing ones.
Lusaka city has run out of burial space leading to challenges by the deceased families in finding alternative burial site.
The ministry is looking into this. Miles is on suspension so I wonder why anyone would ask the official about what a rogue mayor said. Miles as things stand is just a private citizen who is being kept under mr lusambo as minister of this province.
Look at those wall ruins like war zone in Mogadishu.
UPND please volunteer to go clean up that cemetery where you bury your members killed by PF. You don’t have to wait to next year after you take over government, show PF that you are ready to clean up.
There is need to sanitize the populace on creamations
There is no land remaining to bury the ever increasing number of deaths in zambia .Its high time the government educated the people to start looking at another way of desposing off the dead by adopting the cremation way. I know it will be strange to some people, but our moslem brothers do it . Cremation is ideal and cheap and thieves would steal nothing .It is very common in Asia,middle East and western countries including Britain.At list the cities would remain with more space and land to build houses for the ever increasing population in zambia at the same time have enough land to bury the cremated ashes.The goodness with cremation is you can either bury the ashes or despose the ashes in the river or take them and bury them in the village or were ever you want or sprinkle the…
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want or sprinkle the ashes around your house. Other countries have been doing this for decades and their cemeteries look tide and well maintained .We can also do the same
Fake dude masquerading as Kaizar Zulu, are you a minister without portfolio or minister of everything. You seem to know everything about every ministry… mate your attention for recognition has reached dangerous levels, more like Mushota although I suspect you are the same person.
Just posting comments with Kaizar Zulu’s name and photos doesn’t make you Kaizar Zulu. You are wannabe based in England and the real Kaizar Zulu was fired long time ago by dictator thief Lungu. Get real mate and get a life!
As for LSK running out of cemetery, well not surprising because they are busy selling land for residential homes without planning because there’s no ‘nchekeleko’ from reserving land for burial. Now families will have to travel long distances to Kafue at a huge cost just to go and bury their beloved ones. What a country this is!
It’s the living you should have kicked off to Kafue by decongesting Lusaka and opening up economic opportunities in Lusaka, and reserving land for burial in Lusaka.
Meant to write: “…and opening up economic opportunities in Kafue,…”
Successive councils in Lusaka hv not been visionary about land use planning in the capital city. In fact it’s happening in every major town. This is one of the failings of Zambian local government. In fact the problem extends to central government itself. Look at urban growth in Kamwala South and Libala South. Where’s land for such government facilities as schools and police stations? Yet there has always been a His Worship the Mayor of Lusaka in colonial chains and robes. Wht if there hadn’t been one during all these years? We would probably be saying the problem was due to absence of the mayor. The mayor and his council are on suspension. Who’s missing them?