
THE Ministry of Local Government and Housing has transferred K2.1 billion from the Lusaka City Intercity account to Zambia police to assist the council remove vendors from the streets of Lusaka.
In a ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday, acting Local Government and Housing Minister Bradford Machila said since the vendors had taken full control of the city and the local authority was ineffective in carrying out its duties and a decision was made to involve the police in the removal exercise.
“I, therefore, wish to take this opportunity to appeal to members of Parliament who are councilors to help us in ensuring that their councils carry out their legal mandate effectively, thereby ensuring compliance by our citizens,” Mr Machila said.
He said the K2.1 billion was not from the Lusaka City Council account but from a business venture account which the Government set up to raise revenue for the improvement of facilities such as markets and bus stations throughout the country.
Mr Machila recalled that in 2000, the Government upgraded and increased its oversight of the management of intercity bus terminus in order to bring sanity.
The upgrading of the facility was after the realisation that unscrupulous people were raising revenue at the expense of the travelling clients and the general populace.
“It is against this background that the Government invested in the intercity bus terminus by spending over K5 billion in the tarring of pavements and packing as well as refurbishing the buildings,” Mr Machila said.
Mr Machila said the Government later decided to put the station under a management board, which ran the facility as a genuine business entity.
He said as a result of the efforts of the Government, the station managed to accumulate a surplus of over K7 billion, which was set aside for future investments.
This, Mr Machila said, was not withstanding the fact that the council was receiving K150 million from the station on a monthly basis.
“I must inform that the ministry should have been receiving 42.5 per cent of the surplus income from the station towards improving markets and bus stations but due to the number of projects that the intercity management has initiated, the ministry has refrained from taking the dues,” Mr Machila said.
The minister assured the House that soon, street vendors would be removed from the streets of Lusaka as well as other cities in the country.
He said this when he responded to concerns raised by Mandevu MP Jean Kapata (PF) and Mbabala MP Emmanuel Hachipuka (UPND) who wanted to know when the street vendors would be removed on the streets.
Mr Machila said if the Lusaka City Council was effective, such an undertaking of transferring funds from one account to another would not have been necessary.
He said this after Kabwata MP Given Lubinda (PF) wanted to know why the Government did not consider constructing more markets to accommodate the vendors.
Finance and National Planning Deputy Minister Chileshe Kapwepwe told the House that the Government released K2 billion to assist fight cholera in Zimbabwe in January this year. This, she said, followed a Cabinet resolution.
She said the cholera situation that hit Zimbabwe in December 2008 was beginning to affect some parts of Southern Province, hence the decision to release the funds to save Zambians from being affected.
Further, she said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting to discuss the cholera situation in Zimbabwe resolved that member countries should assist their member state in combating the effects of the water-borne disease.
Ms Kapwepwe said this when she responded to a question by Kanyama MP Gerry Chanda (PF) who wanted to know under whose authority the ministry released the said funds to Zimbabwe.
Mr Chanda said it was wrong for the Government to assist the neighbouring country when citizens in Kanyama were dying as a result of the disease.
Ministry of Justice Deputy Minister Todd Chilembo told the House that books of account for the office of the Auditor General were audited in 2008 and anticipated that in the second quarter of this year, the books would again be audited.
He said this when he responded to a question by Mwinilunga East MP Stephen Katuka (UPND) wanted to know when the books of accounts were audited
[Times of Zambia].