By Kapya Kaoma
Unlike most of you, I grew up deep in the village and the natural world taught me life lessons. So when I heard some UPND cadres support the demolition of over 500 houses in Kasompe, Chingola, I made sense of the adage, lunshi pamafi tasela (house flies always gather around feces).
Don’t get me wrong. Zambia has been heaven on earth since President HH took power. Is the Kwacha not 16 to a US dollar? Only fools believe that the economy is biting. Even then, one wonders if we are living in the same country. That’s not my fault. We are all entitled to our own pockets. If you can’t afford what I could, bad for you. As for now, shout aloud and I will shout back–HH is making Zambia heaven on earth!
Back to over 500 demolished houses in Kasompe. Who doesn’t know Chingola was once the cleanest town in Zambia? Yes! We were proud of it until PF thugs came along. They ruined it. But maybe I am too harsh to blame it on Lungu. It began with the shortest man to rule Zambia. I am short too and I don’t mean short people are short mannered. But FTJ was just that–he destroyed Chingola and gave houses away like toilet paper. It is he who caused the housing crisis in the once peaceful and cleanest jewel of Zambia. Retirees didn’t pay their land dues and we watched helplessly as street after street crumbled and bins disappeared before our eyes. House flies and rats took over the streets, and then piles of trash started sharing our streets with us. It wasn’t long before pot holes became dams and all our pride disappeared. To read those words, “Welcome to Chingola, the Cleanest Town In Zambia,” after Kasompe turn-off, made us put our tails between our legs!
But we didn’t stop marrying and giving birth. The spirit of Chingola went on. The Brave Rangers we supported, but we never won anything. As the population grew, we needed more land, nonetheless where could we get it? Across the mining areas new structures were born–of course they were illegal. But they were better than nothing. People started building wherever they could find space. Health hazards these atrocious structures became, but who cared as long as one had a place to call home. It was the MMD to blame I guess–Chiluba to be specific. So when President HH praised his legacy, I wondered if he knew the damage he caused to Chingola.
To mining kids, Kasompe was like a ghetto. But not until Chiluba changed things–mining bosses who retired didn’t leave Kabundi or the famous numbered Streets of Nchanga South–they were proudly married to Nchanga South Hospital and their Golf course. So new ones had to start investing outside the city–something that led to new areas being established. Kasompe became marketable and illegal land deals took off. Unsuspecting citizens were sold plots that they developed–only to discover they were not legitimate. The Great Bally fix it–erased over 500 houses down!
Simple questions. Did President HH ask the value of the airstrip and ask the owners of those houses to negotiate with the original owner to buy back the land? Did the President ask the city to consider alternative land for the airstrip which owners of those houses would have purchased? Did the President consider compensating the original owner using the CDF as opposed to causing unnecessary pain on citizens? There is no doubt the decision was legally justified; but it was not ethical. In short, there’s a difference between what is legal and what is ethical. A leader must carry his people in his heart as opposed to abandon them when they need him most. President HH can claim whatever he wants, but he betrayed the people of Kasompe! This is highly disturbing and despicable.
I know his files are brainwashed to justify whatever he does without question. This is because balunshi (flies) gather around the feces left behind by someone–they don’t follow the one who dumped them there. So it is in politics. When politicians make fecal decisions like this one, cadres defend such inhumane policies with senseless slogans. And as soon as the old feces dry up, and the fresh ones come, flies jump ship–it is the circle of Zambian politics. Balunshi bamuMMD became balunshi bamuPF. As we speak, balunshi bamuPF are joining UPND.
Ala lunshi pamafi tasela!
NO comment, useless article in your own words
I made my first million in opposition and yet some upnd thugs like the one who has commented above, are calling for my arrest. Fuseke
You stole money, you were part of the looting PF thieves so don’t come here pretending you made any money doing businesses. You are no different from all PF thugs & looters & thieves.
@KZ they are calling for your arrest, why? Let those !diots come to your house and face your guns.
I can’t come for your wife, my ex-girlfriend, am scared to shoot me.., you missed Kavindele’s son balls by inches!
I am UPND but I will never agree with such hollow thinking in the article saying “only f0ols think that the economy is bitting”. Typical of poor up bringing where you can stand and insult people wholesomely. I personally I am a rich guy but I will never belittle people struggling to make ends meat and call them fo0ls. And LT, how you accept an article with such blatant insults from this hideous moron
It’s so full of sweeping statements from intro so I gave it a miss. Starts:
“Unlike most of you” How does he know most of us? When did he survey us?
It’s so full of sweeping statements from intro so I gave it a miss. Starts:
“Unlike most of you” How does he know most of us? When did he survey us?
So if government itself has said the economy is in bad shape and they are working hard to restore it, who is this fulish author to say only f0ols think that the economy is biting
Author does not even know the spelling of feaces
Faeces
Sorry bane, feces is right too. It is the American version. Google it
Zambia doesnt use American Grammar. You would fail your exams if you used American jargon at O’level
UPND, we supported you, please disown such directionless authors who use uncivilized language please
When you want to write such articles it’s better you’re factual. It’s not 500 houses that have been demolished in Kasompe. Chingola was the cleanest town because of what NCCM was able to plough back into the community. Kasompe, perhaps the oldest settlement in Chingola has NEVER been in the cleanest bracket, just like its siblings Chibuluma & Kansuswa. FTJ created an important middle class by giving away council houses, some of them older than the Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland, so I wish to differ with you on that point. Why do you always call decisions that benefit the majority as senseless? Zambia is vast and has many challenges that no single person can address alone. Bally can fix the PF but not all problems in Zambia
One can also be fooled into complacency. Ask political history about past Zambian political leaders.
Garbage in ………garbage out…..
Useless author
The HIV/AIDS epidemic would have wrecked even more havoc had FJT Chiluba not done what he did by selling houses to occupiers. ZCCM emp[loyees died in huge numbers between 1980 and 1995. If the deceased did not leave houses behind, the number of street kids and destitutte widows would have reached heaven. FTJ’s ideas were good, but he alone could not implement them. He needed trustworthy people to do that, but unfortunately, vultures saw the carcass and swooped.
Oh please , not this verbal diarrhea again from Kapya Kaoma and his ever present bitterness over the loss of the last election to his excellency HH.
Law will always be law, don`t blame the Government when you know your building is in a wrong place. I can not go and build a house in somebody`s ward and expect everything to be alright. Let`s not justify things here. wrong will always be wrong. The government need to find a solution for those people displaced.There is a good example of St Antony Compound near Mukuba Secondary in Kitwe. the Government had to come up with a different location for people, because the area they built in, belonged to the mines. The same should happen in Kasompe. We need to have law and order in the country. Chingola Municipal Council should have known better, and if they were involved in giving out the plots. They should take the blame.
Defectors are the real house flies.
They don’t follow the person who heaped the dirt, but they go for the actual pile itself. And for as long as they are in that party, they religiously support every action that otherwise is wrong.
Flies have been deserting and forsaking political poop lumps since 1991 to date. From PF, they have jumped ship to UPND and after 50 years (?????), the same flies will ready themselves to cross over from UPND.
Inzi pali ujeni si a vendela kuti acokepo, masimpe biya.
Law will always be law is not a correct understanding or interpretation. . Law makers are men and women elected to make laws, amend laws and remove laws. They are elected to play around laws so that we are governed properly. Somewhere in Ndola, a refinery or some investment was built close to the power line [grid], that was against the law. No demolition was done. The law makers did not want to demolish the infrastructure. ZCCM houses by law belonged to ZCCM, Chiluba and other law makers changed the law and gave the houses to sitting tenants. It was not the intention of the law makers but they responded to the cries of the miners. There are so many examples where a law has been played around in the interest of the governed. UPND would not have sold ZCCM houses to sitting tenants and…
I cant even finish reading this usless article written by this useless mangwam.
What is a mangwam?