By Daily Revelation Reporter
Lusaka mayor Chitambala Mwewa said there was no way he was going to honour the 9 o’clock meeting he promised UPND cadre Michelo and the other cadre drivers, whom he accused of mounting an illegal bus station outside City Market.
Mwewa said he just mentioned that he would meet them around that time to “deflect them” after they followed him to Lusaka City Library on Katondo road in the Lusaka Central Business District (CBD), and told him that “there was some concern.”
And Mwewa said “the shack”, referring to the illegal UPND office on Katondo road would be taken down on Friday.
Mwewa also wondered why all the public toilets had drums in them which he said were taking up a lot of space when they could simply do with just flushing.
During his ongoing tour of the CBD, Mwewa this morning again visited the main Lusaka Library, where he was taken aback that there were birds actually flying inside the library due to broken windows, which he said would be addressed alongside beautifying the surroundings of the structure.
After he had finished his tour and was leaving the place, Chitambala found a group of people waiting for him by the Library’s entrance/exit gate. Then one who seemed to be like a group leader, who Changala referred to as Michelo, said he had been trying to call him but he did not take the call. The man Mwewa referred to as Michelo and his group then told the mayor that there was ‘a concern’.
However, Mwewa reminded the cadres that they were all on camera, and that the meeting could be held off camera. He promised Michelo that he would meet them at Muzaleka (illegal bus station at City Market) at 09 hours.
But as soon as he and the group turned their backs on each other, Mwewa said to the camera that there was no way he was going to “Muzaleka” to meet up with them as he understood perfectly well what that same “concern” was about.
”Now keep in mind, there is no way I am going there at 09 o’clock. Are you kidding? Those are our cadres. That’s Michelo and I know what the issue is there. There is an illegal bus station, Muzaleka, opposite City Market,” Mwewa said. “It blocks traffic. I mean literally. If you are gonna use Kalusha Bwalya road, off Lumumba road you turn into the traffic lights on Kalusha and you want to go straight through to Kanyama you get to a bottleneck, you get to a point where you can’t get through because the buses are blocking the road. Those buses need to be inside the bus station. So that’s the group and they don’t like it. So Michelo says to me, and keep in mind he’s a friend of mine, but you know with our guys you can be friends today and enemies tomorrow boy. So Michelo says to me there is a concern and the moment you hear that there is concern oh no there is bad news. It’s nothing good about that.”
Mwewa said the way to “deflect” people like Michelo was to have cadre engagement and interaction one on one.
He said he gave them the time knowing fully well there was no time he was going to be there at 09 o’clock. He said he had places he needed to get to and people to see, including meeting with the Lusaka town clerk and that after he was going to be sworn in.
”So I don’t have the time to go to Muzaleka. I am not doing that,” he said.
”When a bunch of cadres come to you just give them a time and a place. Don’t stand there and argue with them. If you do that you are gonna be there till kingdom come,” he said
And Mwewa yesterday visited an illegal UPND structure, which they call as an office, on Katondo road, and told the party’s Katondo branch youth chairperson that he needed to move out of there as the structure was “ungazetted.” He said he might be a UPND cadre, but needed to follow the law.
When he visited the same place today he found another person in the same ‘ramshackle’ office and told him that the “shack” was going to be razed on Friday.
”This shack is coming down on Friday,” said Mwewa.
He also went inside the Katondo main public toilet just next to the “shack” and said that public toilets had the same characteristic as they all had drums which were taking up a lot of spaces, when they could do with just having flushable toilets.
