OVER 1000 TRADERS, BUS AND TAXI DRIVERS PROTEST OVER ALLEGED SELL OF PIECE OF LAND AT MASALA MARKET
By Tinkerbel Mwila and Michael Kaluba
Over 1000 displaced traders, bus and taxi drivers at Masala Market in Ndola on the Copperbelt this morning staged a protest demanding government`s intervention in the alleged sell of a piece of land at the market to a foreign national.
The aggrieved traders vandalized the said premises vowing not to allow the alleged owner to commence with construction works.
The traders do not want the said development to continue stating that they do not have anywhere to trade from following the gutting of Kapalala market.
They later stormed the Ndola District Commissioner Joseph Phiri’s office who promised to engage the council and give them a favorable response before the end of the day.
And Ndola City Council Public Relations Manager Rebecca Mushota says the local authority will counter check the documentation that the developer has.
Meanwhile, UPND Ndola District Spokesperson David Zimba who addressed the traders says the party in the district will stand and support what they want.
But when contacted, the alleged owner of the said land Aziz Adams referred all queries to his lawyer.
Meanwhile, calls to modernize Chisokone market that have in the past met resistance from marketeers have resurfaced with the Alliance for Zambia Informal Economy Association-AZIEA- urging the new dawn administration to consider resuming these plans.
AZIEA General Secretary Lameck Kashiwa has however proposed that this is done in full consultation with the marketeers to avoid the confusion and misunderstandings that occurred previously leading to the project failing to take off.
The umbrella organization for associations of informal worker organizations says marketeers and other informal sector workers were apprehensive about modernization of Chisokone as they were not consulted and only learnt that mopani copper mines had provided funding for the undertaking through the media leading to speculations that they would be displaced by foreigners.
In 2018, the then Local Government and Housing Minister Vincent Mwale announced that the chamber of mines was ready to finance the construction of a modernized Chisokone market, an announcement that was met with huge resistance by traders after reports alleged that the land had been sold to Chinese investors.
PHOENIX NEWS
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