Marketeers at Chisokone Market in Kitwe have complained against rampant crime, filth and lawlessness in the city’s biggest trading place.
The marketers said the Patrotic Front (PF) leaders in the district must prove that they were action oriented by organizing the market space.
But Kitwe City Council Town Clerk Bornwell Luanga said plans were under way to erect a modern shopping mall at Chisokone market, but marketeers must support the council’s plans to build a new structure.
Some marketeers at Chisokone said the market had turned into a crime den, including illegal businesses and illicit sex, which often or sometimes was performed in broad day light.
Ms Faustina Kabwe, who trades in second had clothes and groceries, said PF councilors must ensure there was security and proper maintenance of social amenities such as toilets to avert outbreaks of communicable diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
Chisokone market is a sprawl trading area in the centre of Kitwe town, which has been standing for many years, but fire, crime and other social disorders have not eluded the trade place. It is also a centre of political interests and for many, it has been an eye sore.
“We want these people to work on the market immediately. We need security because criminals come to hide here. Sometimes, our shops are broken into. But some people even mate in these structures during the day. We want law and order here because this cannot continue. We have the police, but they are not doing anything to bring sanity. The councilors we have only come here to do their politics and we cannot go on like that,” she said.
And Augustine Mwale, a youthful trader who sells imported blankets said the PF councilors had failed the marketeers. He said Chisokone market must be rehabilitated to curb the illegalities that were ensuing.
“The PF promised to drive politics out f the market, but we shocked that this is when the problem has taken root. It is worse for them because they don’t even allow the opposition to have members here. Our leaders are PF followers and it is like they are just benefitting from the levies that are collected here. We want development and not politics because politics and blaming the MMD for everything will not improve this market. The MMD is gone and it is time for the PF to make its own record now,” he said.
But Luanga said from Kitwe that the City Council had reached an advanced stage in efforts to build a new market. He said the Kitwe City Council was making consultations with marketeers on how best to conduct the project because there would be a disruption of business.
Luanga said the proposed project to develop Chisokone market into a modern structure under the MMD failed because of wrong approaches to it, but the PF would accomplish the project with ease.
He said the council was finding it hard build a new market because there was rumour that the trading space was leased to a foreign investor.
“Previously marketeers thought the council had sold the market to an investor and this is why we faced resistance,” Mr Luanga said.
Luanga said marketeers must agree and give leeway to the council to go ahead and implement the construction project.
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