The Chipata Municipal Council has made headway in its efforts for Chipata district to attain city status.
Town Clerk, Golden Banda, told ZANIS that the local authority has already engaged the Ministry of Local Government and Housing to declare Chipata a City.
Mr Banda said that late Local Government and Housing Minister, Ben Tetamashimba, had promised that Chipata would soon be given city status.
The Town Clerk said in preparation for city status, the council, through Paramount Chief Mpezeni of the Ngoni people of Eastern Province, acquired 10 hectares of land along the town boundary for township expansion.
Mr Banda said that the local authority is now in the process of re-planning Chipata town with the aim of making it bigger.
He said the local authority has also managed to convince the Reformed Church in Zambia (RCZ) to build a Cathedral along Umodzi Highway at the hill near Chipata Police Camp.
Meanwhile Chipata district will have second traffic lights along Umodzi highway at the junction of Church Road, which leads to the second class trading area.
Mr Banda who revealed this to ZANIS in an interview, said that the council was by yesterday, expecting to receive K200 million from the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, which it intends to use in putting up street and traffic lights.
He also revealed that the council has managed to convince proprietor of PROTEA Hotel and Spar Group of companies, Mark O’Donnell, to build a hotel in Chipata.
He said that plans have already been approved for the hotel to be situated along Airport road in the industrial area.
And, Mr Banda has revealed that the local authority lost more than K500 million in revenue collection from various receipt books that have gone missing.
The Town Clerk stated that about four workers from the finance department have been dismissed from employment after being found with a case to answer on the missing receipt books and defrauding the local authority.
Mr Banda said the council decided to fire the four workers from the finance department because they failed to exculpate themselves.
He said that only three workers have been returned although they have been demoted from their positions.
Mr Banda pointed out that among those fired are temporary workers who were engaged on contract bases while the fate of permanent workers involved in the same scum will be known after the full council meeting.
“Some employees in the accounts department defrauded the local authority millions of Kwacha some two months ago” he added.
Mr Banda said market General Receipt books, bus station receipt books, stall license books, and trading retail licenses books are among those which to date have not been surrendered to the local authority by officers involved in the scum.
He said that if all the receipt books were surrendered to the local authority, Chipata Municipal Council would have collected more than K500 million.
Mr Banda said that the council has since invalidated all the receipt books.
ZANIS
Maybe the should declare Kabwe a City as well, I saw a Big Church (Cathedral) along Great North Road last time I visited the place tho it was under construction. Besides, things like hotels are already there (Elephants Head) and shopping malls can quickly be organised.
RB here we come! kwatu kumawa!
It is good that Chipata municipal council is thinking ahead and developing and also expanding Chipata to prepare it for City status. This is a good development indeed.
City status must only be conferred on a town which is already a City in all but name. This nonsense we have of saying we have been promised this and that is not the way things work. You guys are just playing games with our cousins. They may eat mbeba and kanyama kaliye mafupa, while residing in a game park, but they are not stupid. On the other hand, maybe they deserve to be treated this way.
LT sorry for using the word you blanked out in my posting. Where we are it is an innocent word. No offence made.
I differ with town clerk Golden Banda, whilst Chipata needs the city status, there is still alot of development needed. In camparison to Kabwe, Chipata is far behind in terms of infrastructure. There is no point in crying for city status the residents in general need efficient delivery service. What the town clerk is crying for is like a pregnant woman being forced to deliver a mature baby at 6 months instead of 8-9months in some cases 10 months. DEvelopment is graudual, at the rate towns wanting city status, it wont wont be long before Solwezi and Kasama jumping on the band wagon.
What’s all this rubbish about city status for Chipata, do they know what they are talking about or is it because Rupiah hails from there? The Zambian circus rolls on with no shortage of clowns.
Educate us fellow bloggers on what it takes for a town to be declared a City. What really needs to be in place? What sort of conditions need to be met, and is Chipata in right status to be conferred with a city status?
Help us!
As soon as I saw the headline for this article I knew that somebody would make a connection to the proposed designation of Chipata as a city to the fact that RB is an easterner. Lo andbehold you have #7. Does every development in our country have to be about which part of the country you come from?
In Kabwe, there is a BIG MUKUYU TREE, so let it be a City!! Ha! Ha! Ha!. Also Headquarters for Zambia Railways, not RSZ
#7 Hold your fire, this idea of Chipata attaining the status of City has been there before RB became Republican President may this time the stakeholders are taking advantage of his status to speed up the process. To # 8 for a town to attain the status of a city it must have a population of not less than 250,000, excluding baja ba ku mizi a well defined boundary have well developed infrastructure such as roads, water supply and saniatation, a cathedral, a city hall, a sports stadium, swimming pools, good markets, banking facilities, gud compounds and road networks, an airport of international standard, etc. In short a bigger population and all supporting facilities to go with a city and of course vibrant economic activities.
Well, visit Chipata and tell us if you went to a city.
Anyway, my concern is that they have asked for K200m from teh ministry while they are losing K500m. The ministry should not give them but demand that Chipata learn to keep its house in order. If they can loose K500m they can certainly loose some of the K200m. Good for wanting to be a city, eh.
NO politician, civil servant or bureaucrat has the expertise or profit-and-loss discipline to bring about any kind of economic development or prosperity. if it was a private business losing zmk500m, it would have been liquidated and closed down long time ago. mr. golden banda’s self-interest and motivation is just purely political, and NOT the development of chipata into a city. if he was motivated otherwise, he would be marketing chipata as an investment destination to all the business around zambia, and possibly southern africa.
we are wasting time here, just sell zed to taiwan.
ps. nice to know there’s a highway named after oneself. would that be a dual-carraige highway?? anyone?
If I have doubts about Lusaka being a city then God help us with Chipata!
which one is developed in terms of infrastructure between kabwe and chipata? please assist me to know before i make a comment
I think Chongwe should be declared a city. Why not Mfuwe too? What bull***t
Oh and I’m still waiting for our national dish to be declared – mbeba