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Musenge slams Kitwe City Council
Kitwe, February 7, ZANIS ——– Copperbelt Minister Mwenya Musenge has condemned Kitwe City Council for failing to maintain the newly constructed Nakadoli market.
Speaking in Kitwe yesterday when he toured the modern market structure Mr Musenge said the council has failed to run markets in the district following the withdrawal of market associations from the markets.
During the tour, Mr Musenge found that the market structure has been vandalized despite not having being fully utilized by traders.
He further found that the surrounding was not well maintained as long grass had covered the open space around the market with heaps of uncollected garbage within the market premises.
The Minister charged that it was unaccepted for the council to let market deteriorate like that when government spent huge sums of money to construct the market.
Meanwhile Mr Musenge alleged that some council officers were collecting money from traders in the new market instead of marketeers paying to the council in form of market levy.
Mr Musenge disclosed this when it was discovered that the traders at the new Nakadoli Market were not paying market levy to the council ever since they started trading in the market over two years ago.
The Provincial Minister also alleged that the council was allocating several market shops to a few individuals who had used other people’s names to acquire more stores.
He said he would ensure that the allocation of the stands is revisited to ensure that people do not get more than one stand, adding that priority in the allocation of stands will be given to Chimwemwe residents where the market is located.
But Kitwe City Council Town Clerk Bornwell Luanga expressed shock that traders at Nakadoli were not paying market levy to the council and that some council officers were collecting money from traders for their benefit.
Mr Luanga said the money the local authority has lost through uncollected revue from the traders could have been used to pay the workers’ salaries.
And Mr Luanga has warned that if it will be established that some council workers were truly collecting money from traders at the expense of the institution, those that will be found wanting will be dismissed instantly.
He said their dismissal will not be decided by the Local Government Commission because even the commission can not accept such behaviour by workers.
Meanwhile some traders in the new Nakadoli market have complained that there was no business in the new market as buyers were flocking to the old market.
The marketeers appealed to government to close the old market so that those trading from there can relocate to the new market.
New Nakadoli market is a modern market that was officially opened in 2010 but most marketeers are shunning the market claiming that there are no people that buy from there.
