MUKWIMA CHILALA writes
ILLEGAL land allocation and encroachment, and street vending are the challenges Lusaka Province is facing, provincial minister Bowman Lusambo has said.
And Mr Lusambo says he is keen to bring sanity in the civil service in the province.
Mr Lusambo said in an interview illegal land allocation was the major challenge in the province, which needed to be tackled.
He said the lawlessness in the management of land needed to be curbed immediately without fail.
Mr Lusambo said Government was concerned about the rampant illegality, which it would no longer tolerate
“I am very concerned with the rampant illegal allocation [of land] in the province. I think as Government we shall not sit idle seeing the illegality escalate. I will make sure that the matter is completely curbed,” Mr Lusambo said.
He said land encroachment was also another serious matter which Government was worried about.
Even strategic areas like Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) installations had been encroached.
Mr Lusambo said Government was tackling the problem.
He said Government was working tirelessly to ensure the scourge came to an end in the province.
Mr Lusambo advised residents to desist from such illegalities because they were impacting negatively on development.
He said people were committing the illegality with impunity and running to courts of law to restrain Government from evicting them.
“I can assure the people of Lusaka that we will win in terms of curbing this illegality in the province. We have seen this lawlessness being rampant, but we shall fight hard to reduce it,” Mr Lusambo said.
He said Government had engaged Lusaka City Council to demolish structures in areas where land was encroached.
Meanwhile, Mr Lusambo said the bad attitude towards work among the civil servants was coming to an end.
He said from the time he embarked on a fact-finding mission from various institutions the attitude towards work had changed.
“Before I embarked on this mission I used to see people reporting for work and knocking off at their own time. And things were not moving as expected, but this has reduced. This is what I wanted to be happening especially in the government institutions,” Mr Lusambo said.