Paradise police post plans await approval
AN alternative trading space has been identified to cater for the traders who will be affected should a proposal by the community to construct a police post at the former Paradise market be approved, a civic leader has announced.
Patriotic Front Kapwepwe Ward 25 Councillor Patrick Salubusa said Paradise market in Matero Constituency has been operational since 1970s but that most of the traders were left without shops when a clinic was built there in 2015.
This, he said, left about 15 traders in the market without shops. He said in 2016 the area became infamous because of the ritual killings which took Paradise compound and the country as a whole by surprise prompting residents to call for the construction of a police post there and the same Paradise market was identified.
In a statement issued yesterday, head of community and public relations Stanley Kafula said an alternative trading area would be secured for traders following the construction of the police post.
“Following the proposal by the community of Matero that a police post be built at the former Paradise market to cater for the densely populated Lilanda West popularly known as Paradise compound, an alternative space has been identified,” Mr Salubusa said. The civic leader, said in an effort not to leave the 15 traders who were still there empty handed, he has applied for a space in Lilanda Site 5 where these traders would have their shops built saying the office of the councillor would not allow a repeat of 2015 where people were made to leave their shops without an alternative space being found for them.
Meanwhile, Mr Salubusa said a plot had been found in Kapwepwe ward 25 where the Kapwepwe Natwafwane Project would put hammer mills which the organization would use to raise money to respond to funerals for vulnerable families in the ward. He said this would be done through its matron Rosaria Mubanga Chama, he said the community based organisation had been given a piece of land in Lilanda by the Lusaka City Council.
Mr Salubusa said in a related development, an application has been made by his office for a residential plot behind Twalumba Primary School for a construction of a house which would be home for vulnerable children.