By Mingeli Palata
A few days ago, I had the privilege of escorting a friend of mine to Kanyama compound, not so far away from the City center. The visit was an eye opener. As I navigated through the pot holes, ‘road dams’, I saw the poor infrastructures people call houses and kept on asking myself whether its life that is not fair or there is some element of irresponsibility in this sad state of affairs.

To say the least, Kanyama is not only an unplanned settlement but a breeding ground for poverty, failure and cholera. I couldn’t help but to think of the children at the clinic and schools. I kept on asking ‘where the MP for the area is?’ My colleague was quick to remind me that the MP has no capacity to bring development to a constituency what so ever, only the government has the power to bring about meaningful development.

But wait a minute, what about this word local government? Since that term has some sort of relation to ‘Government’, why can’t they do something about this? So I spent quite some time thinking of the ‘solution’ like my Asian based PR friend whose name must-not-be-mentioned-at-all-costs would put it.

The solution is quite simple actually; it lies in something called systems and policy. You may have come across this awfully long word, ‘Decentralization’. My enormously huge Webters’ lexicon tells me it has something to with delegating management control to specific organs, in this case it will mean allowing individual local councils to run the affairs of their respective territories with little interference from central government.

Government has an unnecessarily huge structure that creates a lot negative bureaucracy and is predisposed to abuse by selfish politicians. There are too many truths to this. For starters, simple common sense will tell you that a developmental paper can take years through the paper trail, approval processes, and committee briefings so much such that by the time it reaches the operational stage, its either there is a recession or there is an election – just like that a plan meets its death.

A centralized local government does not ensure checks and balances, and breeds corruption. Because the system is too big and a simple thing like putting drainage needs the consent of the minister,if not the President, the PS, the town clerk, council of counselors and lord know who else- its hard to have people accountable for their assigned deliverables.

There is no one to point a finger therefore the performance of our counselors and MPs cannot be effectively evaluated instead they will all throw the blame on central government.

The system is also prone to corruption; the Auditor Generals’ report is my witness. Notice how many millions of Kwachas get lost in the ‘paper trail’. Every now and then we hear plot squabbles; counselors or party cadres selling plots and in the long run messing up the good plans made by our civil engineers. Now because the system is so huge, this cannot be investigated, it’s left unchecked and consequently our city is in a mess, no roads, shanty compounds, the list is dreadful.

I propose that we review the system of governance to ensure that the local government is given full administrative authority to direct development and enforce sanity in our various locations. This system should ensure that the council collects revenue in form of taxes and levy’s from community households and businesses, and use it to effectively usher in meaningful change in the way communities are governed. Under this new system the responsibilities of the town clerk and the Mayor should be reviewed to ensure that both offices are relevant to society, as opposed to reducing the Mayor to wearing ‘bling’ and attending fundraising dinner dances.

Lets do what so ever is required to legislate this ‘hands-on’ system of governance which by the way is practiced by affluent countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America.You will find that in the US for instance, individual states even go to the extent of making laws that are specific that particular state. I am of the view that this system is best suited to actualize real and progressive change in our lives and will bring Government closer to the people.

Former first lady, Maureen Mwanawasa, has noted with sadness the shortage of maize in the country and the escalating prices of the commodity despite the good agricultural programmes that government has put in place.

Mrs. Mwanawasa also expressed sadness that Zambia was experiencing these problems when the country has abundant natural and human resources.

She said although Zambia has many solutions to these problems, it was failing to meet them because of the inadequate agricultural policies that are currently in place.

Mrs. Mwanawasa, who is also the chairperson of the Maureen Mwanawasa Community Initiative (MMCI), was speaking in Lusaka today at the celebration of Magaba Women Cooperative farmer’s day.

She said there is need for the government to make laws that will help the country come up with both short and long term measures to deal with these problems.

She said as a solution to the current problems, government should equip Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) with new machinery and also plan for the establishment of the new fertilizer plant to help revamp the agricultural sector.

She also urged government to seriously consider early planning and sourcing of fertilizer to support the agricultural sector, adding that late imports of fertilizer and farming inputs was costly.

She also urged government to subside the farmers to ensure that the country has cheap and affordable prices of food.

The former first lady said subsides should be done all year round to allow farmers diversify their agriculture activities using affordable inputs.

Mrs. Mwanawasa also appealed to government to increase the allocation of funds to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to enable it to have sufficient maize for consumption.

She also said there is need to revamp the growing of winter maize as a buffer to the unforeseen shortage of maize, adding that this will enable the country be a food basket and will export the maize when it has surplus.

She however called on all Zambians to work hard to ensure that the country is again turned into the food basket.

Meanwhile, Magaba Women’s Cooperative chairperson, Laima Ndhlovu, commended government for reducing the price of maize and fuel despite the many challenges the country is going through.

Ms. Ndhlovu said despite the prevailing global economic problems, government has reduced the price of maize and fuel for the benefit of all Zambians.

She urged government not to listen to critiques but instead advice them to offer constructive ideas.

Ms. Ndhlovu has also said government should provide small scale farmers with all required inputs in order to promote food security.

She said government should therefore extend the price reductions on all farming inputs in order for this to be realized.

ZANIS

Northern Province Minister Charles Shawa has advised Zambians to give President Rupiah Banda and his administration ample time to address the challenges facing the country.

Mr. Shawa made the call in an interview with ZANIS in Kasama yesterday.

He said it was totally unfair for some people to heap the blame on the government for the current problems that have hit various sectors of the country’s economy.

Mr. Shawa said the fact that some mining companies on Copperbelt province were laying off workers did not mean government was sitting idle over the matter.

He has since urged Zambians to rally behind President Banda’s administration in order to collectively overcome the hardships facing general citizenry.

He further said government was fully committed to addressing the social ills such as poverty and disease facing the country so that its citizens could live better lives.

ZANIS/WS/KSH/ENDS

The Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA) has called upon government to quickly intervene in matter of bus operators in Lusaka who have refused to reduce bus fares despite fuel prices being reduced.

ZACA Executive Secretary Muyunda Ililonga says the decision by bus operators not to lower fares is aimed at exploiting consumers who have continued to pay exorbitant fares for both intra city and long distance routes.

He told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that operators should not cite the depreciation of the local currency as the reason why there will not reduce fares adding that bus fares reduction is determined by the reduction in fuel prices.

“Lusaka bus operators are just displaying their selfishness to say they will not reduce fares because the kwacha has depreciated that is not true, fares are reduced when there is a reduction in fuel prices.” he said.

Mr. Ililonga explained that operators do not buy buses on a daily basis to this effect he has cautioned them to find other means of creating abnormal profit and not by exploiting people who use public transport.

He however, said the there is also need for government through the Ministry of Transport and Communication to put up a deliberate policy of blacklisting operators who do not comply to the laid down procedure of increasing and reducing transport fares.

Mr. Ililonga note that through government’s intervention, consumers can be assured that they are protected in all areas of development in the country.

He point out that though it is a liberalized economy consumer must be protected from all manner of exploitation in the hands of service providers.

“Government should now put in place a deliberate policy and ensure that all those that fail to comply to rules are black listed so that consumers are protected for the development of the country,” he added.

Mr. Ililonga further appealed to government to seriously regulate the transport sector to ensure that both consumers and transport operators benefit from the recent fuel price reductions.

He was reacting to a decision by Lusaka Bus Operators committee that they may not reduce bus fares because the Kwacha has depreciated.

ENDS/MM/AM/ZANIS