Today's letters to the editor

Fri, 12 Jan 2018 09:49:55 +0000

LET’S PROTECT MUKULA TREES

Dear Editor,

There has been so much talk about mukula trees and trucks carrying mukula logs being impounded almost on a daily basis.

Going by the persistent scandals surrounding this tree, despite the Government banning exports of mukula logs, it is evident that this natural resource is very valuable internationally.

My concern is that since this tree is such an important resource, what we are doing as a country to safeguard it from being depleted as a result of illegal, excessive harvesting. Worse, there is no replanting going on. How are we going to protect this resource for future generations if unscrupulous people are allowed to continue harvesting the same illegally?

But as things stand, it appears we are not thinking about using and benefiting from the Mukula trees sustainably, all people are thinking about is harvesting the same carelessly just to make big money. This is all wrong!

I have heard of foreigners who have bought land from suspecting Zambians which is endowed with Mukula trees just to harvest the trees and have nothing to do with the land.

Fellow Zambians let’s change our attitude towards our natural resources by making sure that we use them properly or sustainably bearing in mind that we need to leave something for the future generations. This is what sustainable development entitles.

Let’s not allow money and greed to destroy our God given natural assets in our environment because this will backfires on us or indeed our children in the future.

I therefore appeal to the forestry department to ensure that Mukula trees and indeed other species are properly safeguarded. Already the levels of deforestation are worrisome which if not controlled could result in a desert in some places. The

The ever-increasing production of charcoal is a testimony to my concerns. Let there be some control.

Bidon W.  Zabwata, Kabwe

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Zambia need modern markets

Dear Editor,

Since vendors where asked to vacate the streets of Lusaka central business district, the place looks clean and one can feel the fresh air for now. Parking too has become a lot easier while walking along the corridors is convenient.

Of course, I am not saying our brothers and sisters who were trading on the streets of the CBD should suffer. But we I am saying is that there is need for sanity and order wherever people are selling. There is need for people to trade in a clean and conducive environment.

This means that people must be housed in a building where they will have access to toilet and water facilities among others. If it is an open space, it must be well managed with proper sanitation facilities in place.

In short I am suggesting that the Government builds as many modern markets as they can in Lusaka and the same should apply in other towns. Let’s move away from this crazy idea of abandoning markets to sell on the streets where there are no water and even toilet facilities.

Marketeers should sell from within the markets and not outside so customers can follow tem there, the way it was in the first Republic under Dr Kaunda.

So onus is now on Government to find space in all the four corners of Lusaka and build big modern markets that will be properly managed and most importantly free from political interference Mwale

Concerned Lusaka resident

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Harry Kalaba, rescuer or escapee?

Dear Editor,

Taking enough time to evaluate our leaders in love is necessary for a country yearning for growth like Zambia.  There must be reasons why someone should claim to be a human being but this claim is nothing devoid of a reasoning conscience.

Acknowledging and respecting your being human is nearly equal to standing against a full-viewing mirror and seeing others in your reflection. You attest that you are a human being because you feel other human beings are no different irrespective of shape and size, abundance and lack, poverty and affluence, opportunity and its very absence.

A person with qualities as is described above will definitely live a life of a human being worthy to celebrate and honour. They would be bound to defend morals and expose infirmities awash.

Allow me to interact with our former Foreign Minister Hon. Harry Kalaba who seems to possess the aforementioned qualities. Resigning from a ministerial post on moral grounds sounds quite rare but also historic in Zambia. For me, before I start either getting irritated by or celebrating this resignation, I want to understand the motive behind his quitting.

According to Hon. Harry Kalaba, he resigned because:

“I cannot proceed to manage national affairs with cold indifference when the levels of corruption are swelling and being perpetrated by those who are expected to be the solution. Our youths are wallowing in poverty without a clear plan for them while business preferences and opportunities are always tilted in favour of outsiders, reducing Zambians to mere spectators in the economic affairs of the State”.

The latter is exactly in line with my thoughts that got published in the Daily Mail on the 13/12/17 and I feel justified. However, the former is what makes me now request Mr Harry Kalaba to convince Zambians whether he resigned as a rescuer or escapee. This is what will enable Zambian citizens to differentiate him from other leaders e.g. Chishimba Kambwili, Miles Sampa, Elias Chipimo, Edith Nawakwi, Canisius Banda, George Kunda (MHRIP) etcetera.

When rescuing people in a capsizing boat, you don’t just swim towards them and when you reach them they all thank and praise you and start chanting and chatting right there. Your task is to ferry them to a safer place where everyone would feel saved and relieved.

This is the challenge I give you Hon. Harry Kalaba. Show Zambians that you are a rescuer but not an escapee if your resignation was done for the love of other human beings. Many Zambians are victims of corruption and are praying day and night that God should help substitute corruption with justice and fairness. May you please fully uncover the corruption that you have just mentioned?

Mr Honorable Kalaba sir, you didn’t resign just to acquire fame and political muscle. We Zambians are rightly thinking that you resigned because your good conscience forced you to consider other human beings as equals therefore, with your status and power, we are hopefully waiting for you to greatly help the nation with precise examples of corruption that made you resign, failure to do so would render your resignation as fooling and demeaning!

In as much as you want us to thank and praise you sir for exercising true leadership, we are waiting for the cause of your action. Reveal the people you said are perpetrating corruption with everything they do to prove your innocence. This will really keep Zambia clean and many of us will now reasonably celebrate that God has answered our prayer for the end of corruption through Mr Harry Kalaba. Zambia will then be forever marked with a Harry Kalaba stamp. Thank you in advance for considering my challenge and may God bless you for Zambia.

Trobisch Kakono Kapalu,

Kakono Kapalu

trobisch2k@gmail.com