Mazabuka councillors differ over grading of chief’s road

Mazabuka councillors differ over grading of chief’s road
By Justine Kawisha and George Zulu in Mazabuka
Sun 14 Feb. 2010, 04:10 CAT

COUNCILLORS in Mazabuka have differed over the grading of the road leading to chief Mwanachingwala’s palace in readiness for President Rupiah Banda’s visit to the chief today.

In an interview, Mazabuka central ward councillor Lloyd Buumba said it was wrong for the council to grade the road to chief Mwanachingwala’s palace because of the President’s one-hour visit while there were many other roads in the district that had remained impassable for many years.

Buumba said the attitude of repairing roads when there was a presidential visit was wrong because it was meant to cheat the visiting head of state who would think that all was well in the district.

He said instead of cheating the President by grading the roads at night, leaders should take the President’s visit as an opportunity to reveal the problems that the district was facing.

Buumba, who is also Mazabuka district UPND chairman said the council should no longer give excuses that it doesn’t have money to grade the roads in other townships because it was always able to find money to repair the roads during presidential visits.

“Each time we request the council to grade our roads, they say the council has no money but where does the money come from when the President is visiting the district because roads have to be graded even at night,” he said.

He wondered why the road to the palace should be graded when many roads in the district had not been graded and alleged that money for Mazabuka-Chikankata Road was diverted to Mfuwe.

He said the syndrome of pretending that all was well when there was a visitor was long gone because it was not a good culture.

Buumba also appealed to chief Mwanachingwala to jump of the political stage before he is embarrassed by the PF-UPND pact members that he had been attacking.

But Nakambala ward councillor Shadrick Mwiinga defended the grading of the road to the palace.
He said it was a normal practice that should happen whenever there was a presidential visit.

Mwiinga, who is also Mazabuka Town Clerk, said it was always an African practice to prepare for a guest and that it was not evil for the council and its stakeholders to use other means to prepare for the presidential visit.
He said there was no cheating in preparing for the President’s visit, saying even the Zambian custom permitted the hosting persons to reserve the best for the guest.

“Even in our culture, you prepare a chicken for the visitor and that does not mean that you always eat chicken, unless you call that cheating,” Mwiinga said.

He said people should be happy that the President’s visit would leave a road graded for the general public’s use and explained that the road would only be graded up to Mbiya Basic School from the main road.

President Banda is today expected to visit chief Mwanachingwala at his palace but the purpose of the visit is not explained.

The programme states that the President will depart Lusaka by air at 09:00 hours and is expected to arrive at chief Mwanachingwala's palace by 10:00 hours and would be received by provincial minister, Daniel Munkombwe, permanent secretary, Darius Hakaayobe, opposition Mazabuka members of parliament and chief Mwanachingwala's subjects.

The President will then pay a courtesy call on the chiefs, after which he is expected to interact with the community.

Chief Mwanachingwala has disclosed that all the four chiefs in the district and two from Monze district will attend the meeting with President Banda.

He named the Mazabuka chiefs as Hanjalika, Naluama, Mwenda and those from the Monze.

Chief Mwanachingwala said the visit by the head of state at his palace clearly shows how President Banda attaches a lot of importance to the role traditional rulers play in national development.

He said he would discuss important issues with the President affecting both his subjects and the nation.