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Socialist Party Zambia President, Fred M’membe, has said cleanliness of Lusaka city was not primary but secondary.
M’membe said it was important for government to ensure affordable food, as a primary concern before rushing to cleanliness of cities, which was secondary.
“Food is the number one priority. The cleanliness of Lusaka and other cities not primary but secondary. The city was not made for anything else but for these same people. Yes, the colonial city was for the colonialists of which people would be at the peripheral and they only came to the city centre when they were permitted to do so. But today, the city belongs to them. If cities are there, priority goes to them,” he said.
He said this in a statement issued in Lusaka on Sunday.
“If they are given alternative sources of income, they will stop being on the street. But also it is an exercise in futility. No matter how many police officers are deployed in the streets, people will get back to the street because there is nothing out there for them. Again, let them go back to the things they said. Some of the things we are saying today, they said them themselves,” he said.
M’membe said Zambians that were struggling to afford three meals a day were now struggling to have one meal a day because of the high cost of living.
“We have problems in our homes. People who were struggling to have three meals a few years ago, today they are struggling to have one meal. It is now a big struggle just to have one meal. The stress in the family is huge. If a nation cannot feed itself, if families cannot feed themselves, parents cannot provide food for their children, then you realise that there are serious problems in the family and the nation in general,” he said.
M’membe was disappointed that President Hakainde Hichilema has changed his position on street vendors.
He claimed that President Hichilema criticized the chasing away of vendors from the streets and destruction of their merchandise while in the opposition.
M’membe said it was shocking that President Hichilema who was caught in documented clips was now doing the things he earlier opposed.
“Does he believe in what he says? Should we believe what he says?” he asked.
M’membe said it was surprising that President Hichilema did not take time to explain why his position had changed on anything.
“No one wants to leave his or her home to go into the town centre to be hit by the cold, sun, harassed by the wind and be humiliated by the police. The compounds where they are chasing them to are full of people selling. Wherever you turn to in the compounds, there is someone selling something,” he said.
M’membe said government must deal with the economy, which was pushing the masses into street vending as life had become unbearable in Zambia.
“The problem is not street vending but the economy that is biting resulting in street vending. Let us deal with the problem that is generating street vending. These people on the street would be very happy to do other things that are beneficial because what they are getting from the street is little,” he said.
M’membe said under his party, street vending would continue despite police patrols because there were no alternative livelihoods for Zambians that were struggling to survive.
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