LUSAKA Province minister Bowman Lusambo says he has come to transform Lusaka.
Speaking after he toured City Market yesterday, which was gutted but has now opened for trading, Lusambo said there would be no time for wearing neckties but work-suits and gumboots to change the face of Lusaka.
He said he would engage business houses and cooperating partners to find a short-term solutions to the roofing problem at the market which was gutted last year.
Lusambo, who toured the market and the Lusaka Central business district following trader outcry that the trading conditions at the City Market had worsened following heavy rains in Lusaka, assured the marketeers that he would provide tents for shelter at the trading facility.
“The most important thing for us as government is to make sure that we protect our people. The government of his Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu, we have come up with the policy that doesn’t need street vendors in our CBD [Central Business District]. And we are trying by all means to make sure that we provide alternative places for our people. But visiting and inspecting City Market, yes, we need to provide tents as priority number one to protect our people. To that effect, I will make sure we contact our colleagues in the private sector if we can acquire some tents so that we can help our marketeers here,” Lusambo said.
“The next step is to sit with the Lusaka mayor and other authorities to clear the corridor at City Market. We want equal trading opportunity for our traders. The people who are in the market, they have school going children as well. We have a lame excuse which is coming from our people that others are widows, ‘I am keeping orphans…’ All these are human beings, those who sell inside the market and outside are all equal. So they should be given same trading environment. I have come here not to work alone, I have come to work with you people, with you the media houses and together we will change the face of Lusaka. We have come to transform Lusaka. [I] are coming from the Copperbelt Province, Lusaka is just like Copperbelt Province and I can assure you that I am equal to the task and together we will win. They voted for us to put on gumboots and overalls to come and work with you and we will work. For me, work starts right here and there will be no time for wearing neckties. You will be seeing all of us here – myself, the mayor, the DC, all of them, they will be working every day.”
However, one of the traders asked: “Boss, when are they going to start building the market?”
Lusambo said the reconstruction of the gutted market would start soon.
“They will start very soon,” he said.
And Lusambo gave marketeers trading outside the City Market a 24-hour ultimatum to start conducting their business inside the market.
During the tour, scores of people waved at him with welcoming remark: “Ba Bowman, mwatusanga mu (you have found us in) Lusaka, You are welcome.”
Read this article from the original source: Lusambo: No More Ties, I’ve Come To Change Lusaka.