Police block timber traders protest

Police block timber traders protest

By Thandizo Banda

POLICE in Kabwe have blocked a planned protest by timber traders which was scheduled for tomorrow.

The Kabwe Timber Traders Association (KTTA) had on April 15 written to notify police at Kasanda Police Station that they planned to stage a peaceful protest against the controversial construction of shops at Kabwe Central Hospital junction which has been their trading area.

KTTA interim chairperson Boniface Phiri told the Mast that officers at Kasanda Police Station advised the association not to go ahead with the protest scheduled for tomorrow.

“We are advised by Kasanda Police Station officer in-charge not to go ahead with Monday’s peaceful protest because we are not licensed traders,” Phiri said.

Central Province commissioner of police Charity Munganga said the Zambia Police Service could not allow the protest to go ahead because of the security concerns her office had received.

Munganga said instead of protesting, the traders should have picked representatives to meet the minister and air their grievances.

“We advised that they pick representatives who could go and see the minister to air their grievances on behalf of the traders. What we did not encourage was for them to go and protest. That is the heart of the town. So, there were security concerns. For us we look at security concerns. There was security concerns that came up. So we advised that they pick a representative that can meet the minister because what they wanted was to meet the minister. But then they wanted to protest and then to go and meet the minister. So we advised that for us we cannot stop you from going to see the minister. Go ahead, but there was security concern,” Munganga said.

Phiri said the traders wanted to petition Central Province Minister Mwabashike Nkulukusa to consider reversing Kabwe Municipal Council’s resolution to offer commercial plots to other people at the hospital junction.

The traders operating from Kabwe Central Hospital junction are, among other things, demanding that the construction of shops be halted for alleged failure to follow procedure.

In the petition they wanted to present to Nkulukusa seen by The Mast, the aggrieved traders have accused Kabwe Municipal Council of threatening to evict them ignoring the fact that they have operated there for over eight years.

The petitioners argue that as sitting tenants they were not engaged nor were the land advertised to the public.

They state that the council had continued to collect levies from them yet it did not give them a chance to apply for the plots, and are demanding to be considered in the allocation and have their businesses formalised.

They say that the land was initially reserved for the future expansion of a strategic road leading to key public institutions, something which had blatantly been ignored by the local authority.

The petitioners argue that the council deliberately ignored the presence of a major underground water pipe from Kalulu Water Works to Kabwe CBD, as well as high-voltage power lines supplying Ngabwe District, both of which run through the area.

They are accusing the local authority of colluding with some government officials, councillors, and UPND cadres to allocate over 200 plots at the site at prices ranging between K30,000 and K40,000.