Chikankata residents for subsidy removal

The people of Chikankata district in Southern province have welcomed government’s decision to remove fuel and maize subsidies in order to raise money for financing other areas of economic development in Zambia.

Chikankata District Commissioner (DC) Sylvester Simayaba disclosed this and said people in the area were celebrating the removal of subsidies on the two commodities because they know it will benefit them in terms of infrastructure development.

He said the subsidy removal has no major effect on the district except that the prices of a few selected items have risen.

The District Commissioner was speaking during a live phone in radio programme monitored by ZANIS in Chikankata District.

Mr. Simayaba further explained that subsidies were only making the rich people richer and not benefiting the poor who mostly use ox-carts as their main mode of transport in the district.

Meanwhile, Mr. Simayaba told ZANIS in an interview that land for constructing an administration block for the district has been identified while the township layout plan is also ready.

He said the only step was transforming the said land into state land because it was currently under traditional custody.

He however noted that the transformation process was already underway after having had a consultative stakeholder’s meeting where the agreement was made.

Mr. Simayaba indicated that the proposed land for putting up the administrative offices for the district is at the Nega–Nega turnoff on Kafue-Mazabuka road.

And Mr. Simayaba stated that investors have already started declaring interest to set up businesses in the new district.

An example of the many investors is the proprietor of Vuma filling station.