Maamba bemoans poor roads
By KALOBWE BWALYA PEOPLE of Maamba area in Siavonga have bemoaned the poor state of the roads and have accused their member of Parliament Gift Sialubalo of failing to fulfil his campaign promises.
In an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Lloyd Simbeza said the road from Batoka junction to Maamba area was in a deplorable state and the MP was doing nothing about it and that he was nowhere to be seen.
Mr Simbeza said people of Maamba have suffered for a long time because all the past MPs have failed to fulfill their promises and each time they went to the National Assembly, they were not represented fully.
“From the time we voted for Mr Sialubalo, he has never thanked the people who voted for him and all the promises he made to the people during campagnas last year have not been fulfilled, among which was working on the Maamba road that is dilapidated and he is nowhere to be seen,” said Mr Simbeza.
Another affected resident and ex-miner, Mr Moonga Hauluzwee said life in Maamba was too hard to cope with in that retrenched miners from Maamba Mine Collieries have not been paid their benefits, and have been turned into destitutes.
Mr Hauluzwee said the MP promised during the campaigns that he would look into the plight of the miners and ensure that their benefits were paid, but nothing has been done.
“We are disappointed with the behaviour of our leader and lack of care for the people who voted for him. He has never shown his face here and we are suffering a lot. Look at the poor roads that we have, poor communication network, miners languishing among many things,” he said.
And Happiness Bbanji said women and youths in the area lacked entrepreneurship programmes, and requested that the Ministry of Sport and Youth Development extend the empowerment programme.
Ms Bbanji said most women were into agriculture and livestock, but had no capacity to expand their business due to lack of empowerment funds in the area, hence they sold their produce to people in transit and were not making any profit.
The people have since appealed to President Edgar Lungu through the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development, Ronald Chitotela, to quickly engage a contractor to start working on the road before the rain season.