LCC BLASTED!
PF secretary-general, Davis Mwila has summoned mayor Wilson Kalumba to explain the ‘’heartless” act of destroying structures with property inside and ordered the council to compensate all affected traders.
And traders told the Daily Nation crew that rushed to Kamwala market where protests had started for the second day, that a Chinese investor allegedly bribed some council officials to facilitate the demolition.
For the second day, irate traders converged at the demolished structures demanding answers for their lost property and future prospects because they do not know where to go after being stopped from street vending and now losing their shops.
Mr Mwila said the demolition had affected traders survival and livelihood.
He said it was heartless and criminal for the local authority to destroy and loot people’s merchandise.
The PF chief has ordered an immediate investigation unto what has transpired and who was involved in the looting.
However, the traders believe that a Chinese investor paid K70, 000 to some council officials to carry out the demolition in a move that they said was pure theft.
Some of the items damaged, included closed circuit television which would have shown what exactly transpired.
And Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) leader, Wright Musoma described the action as senseless and showed that the local authority lacked thinking.
“Local authorities should think before acting because demolishing stalls for licensed traders at Luburma Market is a sign of lack of logic when several illegal structures are still standing across Lusaka,” Mr Musoma said.
Mr Musoma wondered why the LCC was quick in demolishing stalls for innocent traders when illegal gates on public roads in Emmasdale that, people had complained about for years were still standing.
Mr Musoma said it was high time local authorities thought through things thoroughly and also took time to consult before acting.
“Why demolish stalls for our poor traders when alternative trading spaces are still under construction? There was order at Luburma Market and no threat of cholera. We want to hear that the council has finally demolished those illegal gates on public roads in Emmasdale, the illegal structures in Matero, not disturbing innocent traders,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Musoma warned that the move taken by LCC was tantamount to decampaigning the current government.
He pointed out that it was the same traders whose stalls were demolished who go on the ground campaigning for the ruling party.
And the United Progressive Party (UPP) has condemned LCC for demolishing trading stores at Kamwala market and has demanded that the local authority returns goods seized.
It condemned the operation taken by the council and accused it of having intentions to loot the shops. In a statement issued yesterday, UPP media director Mainda Simataa said the motive behind the operation was not to enforce council regulations of keeping markets clean and orderly but that it was aimed at depriving unsuspecting traders of their property.
Mr Simataa said the party would always condemn any operation or act of oppression that deprives poor Zambians of their property and means of survival.
“We strongly condemn this council operation because the motive behind it was not to enforce council regulations of keeping markets clean and orderly, but simply to loot the goods of unfortunate and unsuspecting traders,” he said