Sat, 04 Feb 2017 11:29:22 +0000
By ROGERS KALERO
PHOENIX Materials Limited has given Kitwe City Council (KCC) K32, 000 to purchase 41 bins which will be placed in various points of the city centre in order to help the local authority deal with the problem of garbage collection.
The gesture by the company came at an appropriate time when the local authority had removed street vendors from the city corridors in order to clean up the city centre and give it a face befitting a city.
Phoenix Materials chief executive officer Phesto Musonda said the local authority had taken a bold decision to remove street vendors from the city corridors, saying such a move would make it easier for the local authority to clean up the city.
Mr Musonda said, as a stakeholder, his company would always support positive steps taken by the local authority to make Kitwe a better place to live in and an ideal investment city in Zambia.
“People would ask why Phoenix Materials from Ndola is giving to Kitwe City Council. The answer is simple, Phoenix Materials is from Kitwe and so we don’t forget where we come from.
“We have decided to give K32, 000 to KCC in order to help in its efforts of cleaning up the city, especially after the removal of street vendors. I can tell you that the removal of street vendors from the city corridors is a bold decision which needs support from other stakeholders,” Mr Musonda said.
Before street vendors were removed, the city centre particularly Matuka Avenue was slowly becoming a dumpsite where heaps of garbage and blocked sewer system had become a source of concern for residents.
Kitwe Mayor Christopher Kang’ombe said the local authority was grateful to the gesture shown by Mr Musonda and his company and was hoping that other business houses would emulate him.
Mr Kang’ombe said Kitwe was a city on paper because of the heaps of garbage in various parts of the city, but was hopeful that with the help from Phoenix Materials and other companies it would truly be a city in terms of cleanliness. “The programme of cleaning up the city is not for the local authority alone, but every right thinking Kitwe resident and members of the business community. So today, we are grateful that Phoenix Materials has given us this donation which would help the council in issue of litter and garbage collection,” the mayor said.
Mr Kang’ombe, together with his councillors and directors at the council, have come up with a programme of sweeping the city centre every Friday morning.
During the exercise, the officials also unblock the drainage system as a way of leading by example.
Mr Kang’ombe said, as civic leaders, they thought it was important that they lead by example through cleaning the city centre which was slowly becoming a dumpsite before the street vendors were removed.
