Letters to the editor

Tue, 06 Feb 2018 07:34:14 +0000

Lusaka boarding houses  ridiculously expensive

Dear Editor,

The charges landlords are demanding just for a bed space in boarding houses in Lusaka are ridiculously exorbitant as opposed to their counterparts on the Copperbelt.

At some boarding houses, students are paying as much as between K1, 000 and K2, 000 for a bed space a month.

Surely this is way too much, especially where landlords are offering substandard facilities! Many are actually.

What these landlords seem to forget is that their tenants are students who do not work and therefore rely on parents.

So where do these landlords expect these students to get money from. K1000 or worse K1,500 is too much and by the way this is rent parents are paying for the whole house in some areas.

It is clear here that the whole concept of boarding houses has been misunderstood by many so-called landlords and this has been exacerbated by failure by universities to provide adequate accommodation within their campuses.

The concept in itself is wonderful and is a common practice elsewhere in the world.

However, in Zambia landlords, especially in Lusaka have taken advantage of the situation and come up with ridiculous charges for bed spaces to make a killing. It’s not about service but just profit.

I humbly appeal to government is to compel universities that have no hostels to build some which will be affordable to majority of the students.

Unless it’s a university without walls or open university, that’s a different story all together.

Those that offer fulltime programmes should be compelled to build hostels to accommodate students otherwise at the rate we going, education remains largely a preserve for the rich and a few who can afford because tuition fees student accommodation have become extremely costly.

 Concerned Parent , LUSAKA

 ———————————-

HH desire for power is pure pleonexia

Dear Editor,

Someone once said: “We can’t control the drunk driver, the freak rainstorm, the dark spot on the mammogram, the plus sign on the pregnancy test (even though you didn’t miss a pill),

This, I think reminds me more of Hakainde Hichilema of UPND who wants power simply because he wants it.

The gluttonous desire for power and its corrupting influence have been dominant in this man for years only now it has reached terrifying levels.

Someone should tell HH that this dangerous impulse for power, perhaps even an animal impulse, will blindly snatch at everything around until it comes up against some external barriers.

But for HH, I think pleonexia should be his new signature.

Pleonexia is a Greek philosophical concept which roughly corresponds to greed, covetousness, or avarice, and is strictly defined as “the insatiable desire to have what rightfully belongs to others”

This is why HH is scheming day and night to have President Lungu out of State House no matter what it takes.

I wish once again to remind him that it is only Zambians who can remove President Lungu from power because they are the ones who put him there.

So for HH to merely want Lungu out of power is not only day dreaming but ruthless self-seeking and an arrogant assumption that only him politically matters most in Zambia today.

At the rate HH is playing his politics, he is quickly becoming more and more irrelevant to the people.

Perhaps he knows that politically he is washed out and that is more the reason he has taken to ranting and politics of hate.

To President Lungu my message is simple. He should simply ignore his detractors and never stand in the way of lunatics as they march to the political Hades.

Like Jesus once said: “Let the dead bury the dead”. Lungu should not waste time on dead politicians. He should concentrate on delivering on his campaign promises until 2021.

People like HH and even the APC leader Nason Msoni are cry-babies in the political wilderness.

It is just a matter of time.

Josiah Soko, Salima Road, Matero

————————————

Pilato’s disgracing of President Lungu very unfortunate

Dear Editor,

 Zambia’s secular musician, Chama Fumba commonly known as Pilato has in the recent past been releasing songs in bad taste denouncing the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and President Edgar Lungu in particular.

President Lungu deserves respect from everyone regardless of one’s political affiliation by virtue of the office he holds.

Musicians are required to sing songs that educate on a number of issues affecting them, devoid of vulgar language or insults as it were.

Pilato is on record of producing controversial songs entitled: A Lungu Anabwera and Koswe Mumpoto.

These songs are a ploy or rather a scheme to bring the name of the Head of State into ridicule and disrepute. This is a very serious offence punishable by law.

Whoever is sponsoring him to sing such bad songs does not mean well to the country. That person should be a devil!

It seems Pilato will never reform. What he doesn’t know is that he is dwindling his reputation as an artist. His days are numbered as the law shall visit him one day.

He should emulate Madalitso Phiri AKA Dalisoul Mwana Wamukomboni who doesn’t attack anyone let alone insult in his songs.

 ELEMIYA PHIRI Lusaka

—————————

Any lessons lernt from the cholera epidemic?

Dear Editor

In the play “Imprisonment of Obatala”, Eshu the god of creation and the confuser of men is punished by a woman whom he attempts to show kindness by helping put a calabash of water onto her head.

In the turn of events, the woman pours out the contents of the calabash onto the body of Eshu, and she runs away leaving Eshu lamenting: “Being kind has never killed anybody, but it makes one lead a miserable life thereafter.”

In the same case, with the advent of Cholera, Edgar Lungu in his quest to save human life and eradicate Cholera, closed nearly all trading centres and embarked on a massive clean-up.

The military were engaged to join forces with Ministry of Health and Local government.

To this effect vendors were hounded out from the streets, some schools delayed re-opening while church services were restricted to two hours in some areas. This move did not go well with many marketeers as well as street vendors and they have vowed not to give Lungu a vote come 2021!

To make matters worse, the military personnel are alleged to be harassing innocent civilians especially those who carry back packs as they are suspected to be carrying goods for trading.

It appears the soldiers will retreat to the barracks anytime soon, and who knows, will the street vendors reappear as Police will be manning the streets?

What will be your conclusion? When cholera was rife almost all shops had hand washing basins by the doors and there were men and women making sure people adhered to washing hands, now this is a thing of the past, as customers just walk into shops ignoring hand washing facilities by entrances.

Honestly do we need soldiers to force us to wash hand to prevent diseases? Maybe local authorities must make a by-law to make it mandatory for any customer to wash hands before entering any shop as well as close any shop that will allow street vendors on its corridors.  There must a be law also to arrest both the vendor and buyer in the street and in this line our streets shall remain clean.

While Edgar meant well, the street vendors are looking at him from another angle.

They would rather die of cholera while trading than live without making money. Yes, perhaps Eshu was right, one cannot die by being kind, but…..

Just a thought! CHAKWIYA BORNFACE, CHONGWE