Anyone opposed to make Lusaka clean will be defeated -- Mwewa

...as the Lusaka City Council moves to demolish more than 500 illegal makeshift structures at Kamwala's Blue Tent Trading Centre under Operation Clear Path programme

By BARNABAS ZULU

LUSAKA Mayor Chitambala Mwewa has warned that individuals opposing efforts to restore order and make the capital clean and a functional city will be defeated.

This follows the demolition of more than 500 illegal makeshift structures at Kamwala's Blue Tent Trading Centre in the early hours of yesterday under Operation Clear Path, an initiative aimed at restoring order and sanity in Lusaka.

Mr Mwewa said the Blue Tent area would be transformed into an organised space through which the Lusaka City Council (LCC) could generate sustainable revenue.

"Anyone that opposes LCC's plans to make Lusaka functional is simply an enemy of progress and we will vanquish you. We won't stop until we have a clean, orderly Lusaka City. That I can promise you," Mr Mwewa said.

He said the demolitions were not intended to hurt or disadvantage anyone but to restore order and tranquillity in the Kamwala community.

Mr Mwewa argued that the illegal structures had turned the area into a haven for criminals, disrupting both social and economic activities.

"The town was becoming an extension of Chibolya and our civic leaders were too busy playing politics while Lusaka's CBD became a chi big market.

It's time to reclaim our city. The CBD will be green, safe and orderly. In under three years, Lusaka will be different," Mr Mwewa said.

He traced the origins of the illegal structures to 2012, when he said he had visited then Minister of Local Government and Housing Nkandu Luo to discuss one of his properties in Makeni.

He recalled that during the meeting, Dr Luo received a telephone call from then Vice-President Guy Scott, after which she allegedly disclosed that she had been stopped from demolishing three illegal structures beneath Findeco House because ruling party cadres were responsible for putting them up.

"You see Mwewa, I wanted to demolish three illegal shacks under Findeco House, but ba Guy Scott has stopped me because our cadres are the ones building the shacks," he quoted Dr Luo as having said.

Mr Mwewa also alleged that some cadres and councillors had facilitated the establishment of illegal structures in exchange for money, accusing some local authority representatives of prioritising personal interests over the city's development.

Ends.