‘REALIGN SIAVONGA TO LUSAKA PROVINCE’
A CIVIL servant in Siavonga has appealed to the government to theseriously consider realigning Siavonga to Lusaka Province for easy administration.
He said the realignment of Siavonga to Lusaka Province would improve service delivery and public administration in the area as the district was much closer to Lusaka than Choma the Southern Province provincial headquarters.
The civil servant who requested for anonymity for fear of intimidation, said that people in the district were forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to Choma to file reports which did not make sense as Lusaka was geographically closer to the district.
He said already some government departments and agencies in Siavonga such as the Police and the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) were administratively reporting to Lusaka and not Choma which made a lot of sense.
He said that once Siavonga was realigned to Lusaka there would be a reduction in government expenditure on transport as departments would stop travelling to Choma to file their reports.
He noted that Government was slowly implementing the decentralisation programme and eventual devolution of power to districts.
“There is need to take practical steps to correctly position districts in both geographical and administrative systems,
“It is a fact that Siavonga is difficult to administer from Choma and poses huge logistical problems to be serviced there because it is geographically located far from the provincial headquarters,” he said
But UPND opposed any moves to realign any part of Southern Province to other provinces for fear of losing political grip on its only remaining stronghold.
In 2012 when President Michael Sata created Chirundu district and consequently realigned it to Lusaka, UPND vowed that once elected into power, all parts of Southern Province which were taken to Lusaka and Central Provinces would be reverted back.