I want Shibuyunji back to Lusaka province, says Nkhomeshya
By JOHN KOMBE
I want Shibuyunji district to be brought back to Lusaka province because it does not belong to Central province, senior chieftainess Nkhomeshya Mukamambo II of the Soli people of Lusaka Province has demanded.
Chieftainess Nkhomeshya made the appeal when Chongwe member of parliament, Sylvia Masebo paid a courtesy call on her at her palace yesterday.
She said that Shibuyunji belonged to Lusaka until it was realigned to belong to the Central province in 2018.
She claimed that the realignment was done without consultation and had violated cultural and traditional etiquette. She said that there was no way the area could have been moved to the Central province because some of the ancestors of the Soli people of Lusaka were buried in Shibuyunji.
She said that this meant that the remains of the Soli people who were buried in Shibuyunji had involuntarily been transferred to another province.
She said that she has severally complained about the development, but nothing has been done about it so far.
She therefore appealed to the New Dawn government to consider the cries of the Soli people of Lusaka province.
The traditional leader observed that the Zambian cultural values demand that the graves of the deceased are respected and as such transferring the dead to a province which was not theirs was against the cultural and traditional norms. She said that the realignment was not just a physical undertaking and as such must be done with respect for culture.
She also seized the opportunity to remind the New Dawn government to ensure that it lived up to the expectations of the people who gave the UPND a resounding victory in the August polls. She said that the victory was unprecedented and must therefore be matched with unprecedented development that will not leave anyone behind.
“I would like to congratulate the UPND for emerging victorious in the last elections, but I can only urge them not to discriminate against anyone. You must not treat districts differently. Take development everywhere and treat people of different regions the same,” she said.
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