Political Cadres Still Interfering with the Running Markets and Bus stations in Lusaka – ZULAWU

The Zambia United Local Authorities Workers Union (ZULAWU) has charged that Lusaka City Council is failing to meet its financial obligations due to political interference in the running of markets and bus stations which are a source of revenue for the authority.

But Lusaka town clerk Alex Mwansa says the local authority is having difficulties meeting its financial duties due to reduced revenue collection following the covid19 pandemic, but notes that the council is putting up strategies to address the situation.

ZULAWU President Kingsley Zulu says the council can only manage to run effectively if cadres are removed from markets and bus stations saying the authority is losing money to cadres.

Mr Zulu said in an interview in Lusaka that cadres should be stopped from running the two entities and that Government should put its foot down to ensure that the local authority raises enough revenue to run effectively.

“It is one of the councils that is capable of running on its own in the event that political interference is removed and those two facilities are the ones that can help Lusaka City council get back on its feet,” he said.

He observed that the council owes three months’ salary arrears to its workers because it is not able to raise enough revenue.

And Mr Zulu has appealed Government to come to the aid of Chipata City Council which is owing its workers six months’ salary arrears. Mr Zulu observed that Chipata has a narrow revenue base though it was upgraded to a city.

“It is a city by name but its revenue base is still that of a municipality,” he said.

The ZULAWU president said Chipata city council requires Government support.

“We are appealing to Government to bailout the local authority with a special grant to clear the salary arrears and run efficiently because clearly the wage bill is beyond cannot be met by the council,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Zulu has appealed to Government to increase the equalization fund to councils owing to the covid-19 pandemic.

He observed that councils’ revenue base have been affected by the pandemic.

“As you are aware, the operating time for places such as bars have restricted hours of operating from Friday to Sunday, so that have reduced their workforce so that council is not collecting as much in terms of personal levy and trading license.” He said.

He stressed the need for Government to cushion the impact of the covid-19 on the local authorities.

But Lusaka Town Clerk Alex Mwansa has attributed the failure by the council to fully offset its salary arrears to employees to the slowdown in revenue collection due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Mwansa told ZANIS in a telephone interview that the situation is expected to stabilize between March and April this year.

“Contrary to reports, we have already finished paying the salary arrears for the month of November, we are in the process of paying the December salaries, so we are not behind by three months as alleged,” he said.

Mr Mwansa stated that the local authority is making improvement in revenue collection by enhancing e-billing and processing documents such as fire certificates and licenses using electronic licensing system to improve its revenue base.

“Working with Airtel, we have introduced the mobile collection solution for houses and premises that are still operational, we have created a taskforce of council employees who are collecting what is being owed by property owners,” he said.

The town clerk said the council has also increased the number of field workers to cover the entire district in revenue collection.

He stated that the council is collecting mobile numbers of all its clients in order to further enhance e-billing services.

“We have also captured all the council properties for them to be brought on the e-billing system, we are opening offside pay points in our peri-urban areas so that our clients are not made to come to the civic Centre to make their payments,” he said.