The other morning we woke up only to find the famous Soweto market gone. All the market stalls were gone. This was received with utmost disbelief for most of the residents especially the men and women who owned the stalls. Some lost all their property as a result. This means more people out of work, more people without money, more people without food and less children going to school. Hats off to the hardworking Lusaka City Council!

The demolishing took place because the council was building a more modern building to accommodate the traders at Soweto market. It is no doubt that the new and modern facility will be a welcome development to all the traders of Soweto and all the shoppers of Lusaka. But why the haste in destroying millions, if not billions of Kwachas, worth of property? Could the council have handled the matter differently and have been less confrontational? Certainly.

To hear the council spokesperson justify the exercise, stating that the traders have been operating at the market illegally is very illogical. Why did it take the council so long to destroy the stalls if they have been operating illegally? Was there a warning I wonder? The council should have warned the traders in advance and facilitated the transition to their new trading place. If the new modern market is not ready then they could have waited for the market to be ready for a smooth transition. Who burns their home and property before their new home is ready? I guess only our city council is capable of that.

What the council should have done is to create maximum awareness to the traders at Soweto. In fact, they should have had a specific date communicated to all the traders through flyers, megaphones, newspaper, and television adverts as to when they will come with their bulldozers to do what they are good at doing. For some reason our council is good and efficient at tearing things down. They meet deadlines when it comes to this. Tell them to build something and suddenly there are tons of excuses. The council should have put a countdown on national television starting a few days before the demolishing exercise.

Again, like I have stated so many times local government is there to help its citizens. It has a duty to provide basic necessities and create acceptable living conditions for its people. This is also how peace is promoted. When you provide and take care of your people then order will equally follow. However, the actions of the council leaves me wonder whether these people are really concerned with the peace that we all enjoy in this country by demolishing Soweto market.

I am in no way saying that the traders of Soweto should not move to their new trading post. I think they should because after all Soweto was one ugly, full of chaos and smelly place. It was a place I dreaded going. Regardless, the traders at Soweto deserved better especially from the council who levied them always.

I am glad I come from a country such as Zambia whose people are peaceful and hate violence. When I was at Soweto yesterday morning it was very quiet except for the disbelief on the faces. Maybe they saw that coming but didn’t really believe that the council will do it. Maybe right now they are so hurt and wondering what step to take next. Maybe they do not care and will easily just move on and transition to wherever they will be selling their Kapenta this time.

Whatever the above case may be, I can assure you that there will be a hungry family tonight because the father did not bring food, there will be a broken home tonight because the wife cannot take it any more, there will children not going to grade nine despite doing so well because…Well I do not even need to go further with this one. That is what our local government is capable of doing–destroying innocent lives of its own people. I see why they are building on the promise of continuity—to make my life and your life continue to be miserable and promise theirs full of cheers!

The Zambian National Anthem- How accurate is it?

By Mingeli Palata

I still recall my first primary school days, the safari uniforms and shorts were the order of the day and each Monday we would go pa parade, meet the headmaster and hear all that we are doing wrong.

I shouldn’t also forget the ‘up, sideways, down’ and the ‘stand at ease, attention sir!!! Look I don’t know which school you went to but at the school my parents afforded, that was the way it was. But I believe there was also once a time in your life when you sung the national anthem every Monday if not every day or back in the good old days when its was only ZNBC or never and we would all wait for the National anthem to be played before TV opens at 17:00hrs just so we could watch ‘’Shira and Bozo’!

In all honesty I only got the words of the National Anthem correctly when I reached my grade 8 at Kamwala High School but for the ‘Zambia, praise to thee, all one, strong and free’. Dear friends its not that I still can’t get the pronunciation but I constantly question the truth in that statement. I don’t know about you.

Let’s take some time to think about that phraseology and just the whole composition of our national anthem. Among the most prominent words in the national anthem are ‘proud and free’. Where the meaning of the word freedom can be relative to the situation in which case we would be talking about 44 years of peace and independence, the mafia law has it that who-so-ever controls the money has the power and the two cannot do without the other.

More than 40% of our budget is funded by westerners, the fabric of our economic base is too young to be independent and we live in a country were we do not eat what we produce and produce what we do not eat- our industry and manufacturing wings are too weak and almost non-existent. Just imagine what would happen if the western world pulled out a Zimbabwe move on us! Proud and free?

How about Land of work and joy in unity? Year after year myriads that graduate from high schools and universities continue roaming the streets with no jobs- nothing. Graduating from UNZA is no longer a guarantee to a better life; you will need to know someone from somewhere who knows somebody that works at some place for you to get a job. So why would it be a land of work and joy in unity?

One Zambia, One Nation, well coined and very much echoed in our National Anthem. But is it? Just the voting trend in the last election answers that question better than you and me. Accept it or not, tribalism has become pronounced in our country. What a sad state of affairs! Just how united are we? Yes just how united are when we have other tribes not voting for the other tribe even if the devil himself was the other choice.

Freedoms fight? It’s true that I am such a big fun of Dr. Kaunda (To the extent that I have procured a few safari suits for myself ) but I doubt that what the freedom fighters were fighting for has been attained. Our fathers shed their blood so as to see a better Zambia, in which all the children would go to good schools, have good hospitals and would have food on their tables but alas, the situation today is far from what had been hoped for. 44 years the line, more than 60% of our population is poor while the few rich continue to feed on lobsters and send their children to the UK for studies. Its just like that book ‘animal farm’, it’s a good read, get yourself a copy!

Obviously the National Anthem is not accurate to the Zambian situation but the point I am trying to note is that the national anthem is the Zambian dream and we should all strive towards making it a possibility.