THE RISE AND FALL OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM IN ZAMBIA
Watching the then Lusaka District Governor the late Mr Michael Chilufya Sata on television with the late Charles Mando was but an interesting interview.
The show was live on our local broadcaster, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, at around 20 hours, soon after the main news and I watched from Ndola whilst on holiday as a school boy from the Munali Boys Secondary School.
It must have been in 1986, if not 1987, precisely, as Sata bragged, about the Lusaka City Council being the richest Council in Africa.
Sata, in my serious view, was Zambias’ most well informed President and remains so even in death because of his great abilities to gather information following his background in security.
This is a story for another day.
History records that the LCC had heavily invested in various areas besides getting grants from the national treasury.
The council had housing units doted across the nation in many several townships which they had put on rent.
The Council had buses for picking up workers to and from work as well as for business purposes.
Our local government equally had bars and taverns all over the nation, which enabled citizens to go and patronise at will.
The council had halls that were for hire .
These acted as supplements to the income generated from land rates and water bills and from the sale of building materials from designated sites and service areas of the councils.
As if the above were not enough, the Council had proper swimming pools they controlled at reasonable fees in cities within our nation.
Markets were on board as traders paid some fees to the Council cashiers who came either on a daily basis or after a few days with a receipt book.
Personal levies were yet other supplements to beef up revenue.
With the above sources of income surly Sata was in order to brag about our local government that time in front of the television .
Salaries were paid in full and in time to all employees as opposed to what we are seeing today .
Council workers have in the recent past gone to over 12 months of unpaid salaries, yet they are made to report for work.
They don’t have uniforms anymore. Deceased musician Yandikani Lungu once sung about the council uniforms in his song titled Amalume alemela, literally translated to mean my uncle has gotten rich.
The Kenneth Kaunda Administration had a deliberate and sound policy on local government.
It was one of the best in the African continent without doubt.
Roads in townships were maintained frequently with the equipment the council had procured for such purposes.
Lusaka and other cities and towns around Zambia were clean because the councils operated in full swing and capacity.
Every week, gabbage was collected for free by the council using their own gabbage collection vehicles.
You would not see dirty in drainages or roads, not even dead cats or dogs, for more than 1 hour on the roads as is the case from 1991 to date.
Today, gabbage is thrown in drainages, roads,open areas ,incomplete buildings, and back yards.
Our councils were very smart and systematic in their operations.
Site and service plots had plans for clinics, schools, roads,drainages, markets,water systems,police, etc .
Our morden Zambia has failed to give such services to her citizens, and we have failed to improve on the Kenneth Kaunda local government policies .
Places like Chalala,Kamwala South,Libala South, New Lilayi, Madido, Obama, and Ranchdale, among several others, are not council designated areas for settlement hence challenges in getting better services by their door steps.
Our nation is extremely dirty, to say the least. Our untidiness caused a female doctor friend of mine from Tanzania to decline a job opportunity years back after reading in a certain magazine on how dirty Zambia is?
We spend much time defending people we like as opposed to defending the right things around us.
The current 30.6 million Kwacha given to constituencies in Zambia is more than enough to start collecting gabbage and dirty from every household for free.
The Constituency Development Fund is not for any other purposes apart from identifying need and urgent minor projects in our areas so that we fix them.
It’s for cleaning up our societies in our weaker areas.
The drainage system in Kanyama,Chibolya,Soweto,Kuku,Chawama,JohnLaing, John Howard,Chalala,Kamwala South, and several other areas is pretty bad.
Let’s use our CDFs for such emergencies, or else people will continue to die in numbers due to complicated waterborne diseases around us.
The falling of our local government system started soon after the 1991 elections and went on right into 2001 during the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, MMD reign.
What the councils enjoyed as sources of income were sold or just disappeared in thin air.
All council houses were sold to sitting tenants at giveaway prices .
The creation of the Lusaka Water and Sanitation Company made people to be paying water bills to this new company as opposed to the council in Lusaka, for example.
This was the case across the nation.
Councils no longer give planned settlement areas as political cadres enjoy the powers to apportion bare lands to their benefits in most cases.
I don’t know what has become of the bars and taverns that the councils had ?
At least the halls are there, but we are yet to establish the truth about the swimming pools.
The council libraries are yet another serious concern at hand. How we wish they could be rented out ?
Whatever happened to the playparks??
The workers’ conditions of service have deteriorated with time,very pathetic indeed.
They are made to wait for many months before they ever see their salaries as witnessed in the recent past. This is inhuman and very shameful for an institution that was a high performer.
In conclusion, we challenge all those entrusted with the handling of the CDF funds to look into urgent matters like drainages and gabbage collection before lives are lost.Let gabbage be collected for free across the nation.
The CDF funds availed to constituencies are more than enough to deal with this important exercise.
Let someone swallow their pride and do the right thing for Mother Zambia for once.
The Harry Kalaba led government will ensure that sanity gets back to the local government and uplift the conditions of service of the council workers across the nation.
Kalaba and his team will thrive to make sure that the old good days of the Kaunda Administration of councils are brought back coupled with new other methods from our manifesto to benefit our people.
Dr Cephas Mukuka
Deputy Secretary General / Politics and Operations.
Citizens First,
Member of UKA.
20.06.24