President Rupiah Banda has commissioned the newly constructed Protea Hotel in Chipata in the Eastern Province.
Mr Banda said the new hotel will provide excellent services that should be emulated by others in the hospitality industry in the area.
ZNBC’s Chabwera Zulu reports that the President said this during the commissioning of the Twenty billion Kwacha hotel, Friday.
Mr Banda said the new hotel will help in attracting tourists to the area.
He said he is confident that the hotel will be effectively marketed in a bid to promote tourism.
The President is happy that hotel standards are going up in the country.
And Protea Hotel Zambia Limited Chairman, Mark O’donnel said the new hotel is the only internationally rated hotel in the Eastern Province.
Mr O’donell said Protea hotel has built a reputation for proving quality services since the first Group hotel was opened in Chisamba over 12 years ago.
[ZNBC]
why does he commission any structure that is built. We are tired of this commissioning crap. Is there no any other news in zambia apart from this. Imagine someone commissioning unfinished structures, unfinished roads what a junk is this.
Now I know where to go next time I’m in Chipata! Thanks, Mark!!
Yee@1 in Zed every little stupid thing that is built its commissioned by RB I cant understand this crap too,but apparently it looks like there is nothing or very little happening so they want to give an impression like there is progress,soon you hear that he is commissioning public toilets in Cairo road just keep watching its drama in Zed.In serious developing countries there is so much happening that mayors and municipality leaders are the ones doing the commissioning while the president is busy either brain storming issues or coming up a economic legacies with their finance ministers.
Wasn’t this supposed to be done by the minister of tourism, his/her deputy, a perm sec?
Even toilets will be commissioned soon.Rupiah will soon be going round all residential areas to commission all new houses built by individuals and add that to his achievements for campaign purposes
Presidential advices please dont let the Zambian Presidency be disrespected and down trodden. This makes the Presidency look cheap. Lets be selective with what a President can commission before he’s turned into a laughing stoke.
Meant to write “advisors”
I heard this ugly animal who looks like a mujili (bush pig) invited the whole chipata to go drink at his farm,using tax payers money.This man should go l want to come back home.The only way l can come Is lf the remove mmd out of power.viva pf.
This f.o.o.l.1.2.3 must see what his friends in other countries are commissioning not that s….h.i.t of a simple private investment. that should have been done by a district mayor not even the Provincial Minister
only fools dont know that this is an eRection year and if the man does not campaign he will CRY….
Ya but RB with his commissioning issues..he really has nothing to point at,even an hotel ..please.LMAO…bloggers u very funny,you have made my weekend,especially #3 and 5.
Chipata is one of the fasted growing town and probably among the cleanest towns in Zambia. We have Luangwa National Park in Eastern Province. Therefore, it plays well to have good hotels in that part of Zambia for Tourism that brings us foreign exchange. The Munchinji Dry-Port will mean alot of Business Traffic.
We should encourage more International investors to build more hotels in places like Kasaba Bay ( N/Province), Siavonga, Solwezi ( which is now a booming mining town), Western Province and Livingstone the tourist capital.
Its better for us Zambians to look at things from the objective angle…..
No.12. INDEPENDENT OBSERVER
Development is welcome, but it doesnt need the president (and the whole Ngoni and MMD entourage) just to commission it. We are paying enough on his world travels with his presidential jet. Its you who needs to stop singing MMD chants and become objective.
You fools who are condemning the president should understand that he is there for so many other engagements not only to commission protea. Please grow up and learn to follow issues
Its only a big fool who will think that the president is there for so many other engagements not an upright person. What engagements even toilets will now be so many engagements let him commission real issues not anything that can be done by a minister.
13# True Zambian
I do not subscribe to shallow minds.
– What has building a Hotel in Chipata by foreign investors has to do with RB’s trips
– Who says that the whole government is made of Ngoni.
– Do you have issues with Ngoni People?
Protea Hotel has seen an investment opportunity and built a hotel in Chipata.
All Zambians from all tribes will use this hotel. In addition, why bring in Ngoni People
– What makes you think that I am from that part of the country?
If you look at my comments on 12#, you will realise that I am encouraging foreign investors to build hotels in other parts of the country. What is wrong with that?
Take your utter rubbish to your base…
Jesus said”what can i compare this generation to,its like children in a market place saying we sang and you never danced”. Permitted, I would say what can I compare this Zambian generation to,copy cats void of wisdom such that they unintelligibly compare 600,400,200 year old nations to a young country whose resources prior to independence where used to build Harare leaving the post office as the tallest building in Lusaka.Zambians grow,the hotel has a right to invite the president in order to make a mark on the hospitality industry thus attract tourists in return.warped and sheepish thinking is your illness,GROW !!!! and develop the country.
No 12 Independent Observer & No 17 Big Chile Mungwi
Guys your thinking is good. The problem is that we have most bloggers that have so much bitterness and will take their anger on anything that they come across. RB is just encouraging the foreign investors to invest in Zambia. Who would not want to have his business officiated by a President of a Nation. Sarkozi in France & Angela Markel in German do these things all the time. Even the queen of England goes to just officiate a ward in hospitals all the time.
Can someone from home please tell me if its a brand new structure biult from the scratch or they sold the Laungwa guest house, the already existing excellent structure that was run down by the government.
@ #19 Can Power
The Chipata municipal council has been busy at work. They want Chipata to gain city status so they have been inviting all sorts of real estate developers to invest in Chipata with Protea being one of them. They even invited some investors to build a shopping mall in Chipata and a Church to erect a huge structure in the town. They even installed new traffic lights.
This is a council with a vision and busy at work. If only more councils could gain such initiative from the Chipata municipal council.
Lusaka Times: Chipata district to attain city status soon – Banda
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.
cont from #21
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.
cont from #22
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. [END EXCERPT]
We need more councils to take such initiative and not wait for the Central Government to do everything.
# 16, 17 ,18 your approach is progressive and your thinking is in the right place. there is just too much bitterness in many people perhaps for good reasons. but when progress is being made in a country we have to rise above our personal feelings. so people in there bitterness even end up lying like # 3. serious developing countries i hope he includes namibia. well you have to see what the national president commissions.
criticism is good but most times, chaps that talk a lot contribute nothing very little to real things. they will complain about every thing and try nothing
The best people that know the market for any business opportunity or venture in any given area, community, town or a nation are the local people.
Over the years, Chipata has been progressive because the Chitapa council and the Local Business People have not left every thing to the government, but to go out and pursue investors.
We have become a nation that wants the government to think for us. In the UK, schools that get less funding do not always wait for the UK Government, but go out to the Private Sector and “lobby for financial assistance.”
Cont… from 25
The same with UK Local Councils, they tend to maximise development projects by inviting the business world to build Sport Complex, Shopping Centres, Social Amenities, Retirement Homes..
This is the whole point of having Members of Parliament. It’s for them to play the role of bridging the gap between the government and the private sector. And not to spent time queuing up to the Post throwing insults.
If a lot of Provincial Headquarters followed the Chipata model, a lot could have happened in Zambia over the years.
No# 25&26 INDEPENDENT OBSERVER
No# 22&23 Mr. Capitalist – 3 E’s steering economic growth
No# 24 Global citizaen
You are among the few Wisemen that are good thinkers. We have a lot of KAPONYAS that are a bunch of finished articles in life. They wake & go to bed with bitterness just like Lucifer.Guys keep defending what is good for Zambia. Peace to Mother Zambia
#25 zambia need to get to that point that you so well illustrate. guys like you make me have hope for my child in the zambia of tommorrow
when is protea coming to Mongu?
What’s the big deal about RB commissioning that hotel? Somebody has seen a business opportunity in Chipata and put up a brand spanking-new hotel there and people are not happy just cause it’s RB he has invited to open it. Let’s give credit to Mark and support the business whenever we can. As for me and mine, we now know where to stay if ever we are in Chipata.