THE Lusaka City Council has taken back control of Lusaka Intercity Bus Station, which was until now controlled by PF cadres.

Over the years, cadres had infiltrated the bus station; collecting and pocketing revenue.

Following UPND’s victory, PF cadres have now been removed from the station.

Speaking during a tour of the station, Wednesday, Lusaka city town clerk Alex Mwansa said the bus station would be run professionally and the recruitment of staff would be on merit.

He said the council would also take charge of all markets.

“We have taken over the running of Intercity Bus Station and of course this will be escalated to the markets as well; Intercity, Soweto all those markets where we had cadres. One thing I would like to say is that this place can generate a lot of employment for the youths. If you have analysed the value chain for Intercity Bus Station, it can create a lot of jobs for the youths and that is what we want to do. This vacuum which has been left by the cadres will be filled by qualified manpower and will focus on the youths. They are the ones we are going to employ now to fill the vacuum,” Mwansa said.

“We want everything, every aspect of this bus station to be run professionally and so recruitment of staff will be on merit basis. We will ensure that they are properly trained so that we enhance revenue for the council. The revenue we are going to collect is not going to be for consumption, we want to apply it back into the station, so that we create a conducive environment for the travellers.”

Mwansa said despite the station being built a long time ago, there was little recapitalisation.

“This station was built a long time ago, there has been very little recapitalisation. That is why we are saying that once you improve the business environment, it will be easier for us to generate more income and plough back into the infrastructure for the station. So, there are issues of employment here, there are issues of business, you see there are banks all sorts of [businesses, like] restaurants and so on. So, we are happy and thankful to government, they have shown this commitment to ensure that markets are run professionally,” said Mwansa.