A picture of a sleeping Lusaka Mayor today went viral on social media with netizens taking turns to mock him after he ordered council police to demolish Zoona, MTN and Airtel vending kiosks around the City.

Meanwhile, PF cadre Munir Zulu says Kalumba must be impeached for ordering the demolition the kiosks in the central business district.

Kalumba has become famous for his quixotic ideas; his suggestion to deduct K10 from Lusaka residents’ talk-time credits to go towards garbage collection, introducing underground power transmission cables in order to clear ground for residential plots, cremation to decongest graveyards among others.

Ephraim Shakafuswa captioned the picture: “Dreaming about closing all Shoprite Stores and replacing them with public toilets.”

Leslie Musonda Mwenya wrote: “Always making headlines for the wrong reasons, when he wakes up from that slumber, you’ll be amazed at what will come out of that mouth.”

Emmanuel Kansamba wrote: “This man, no wonder wherever there is decision making he comes with stupid ideas. How, honestly can you develop as a country having useless people like Lusaka Mayor. Because no one can challenge me, he slept because there was nothing to do. Lusaka has got lots of problems; accommodation, garbage, sanitation, trading places, clean water, street kids, and so forth. This city needs someone above academic qualification, otherwise they will be getting salaries just to warm the seat.”

Weston George Mubanga wrote: “This photo should be put on Billboards as you enter Lusaka.”

Douglas Randy Mwale wrote: “Ba mayor batu, nothing he knows, he is just day-dreams, am sure if he were to stand again, no one not even himself can vote for him.”

And hundreds of other netizens posted pictures of themselves in their offices or cars ‘sleeping’ like their mayor.

Meanwhile, Zulu called News Diggers! to complain about Kalumba’s decision to remove MTN kiosks.

“We came to know that Lusaka Council police demolished a lot of kiosks meaning a lot of people working for Zoona, MTN, Airtel will have no source of income. The best that the council can do is to impeach him [Kalumba]. Let them cast a vote of no confidence. We have reached a point where, there are no jobs in Zambia because money transfer is one way of creating employment directly or indirectly,” said Zulu.

“The people manning those kiosks are earning a living out of those kiosks but today we have demolished them yet we are failing to demolish billboards that are a source of road accidents on many roads in Lusaka. So for me I condemn that and it is my prayer that the councillors can move a vote of no confidence in him.”

But Kalumba, in a separate interview defended his move, saying the kiosks were unlicensed.

“Those haven’t been licensed by the council. They haven’t been licensed, they haven’t paid business levy, so basically they are operating in breach of council rules on business levy. I have already engaged the phone companies and they agreed that they are in the wrong because they are allowing their agents to operate without complying,” said Kalumba.

“So what we have agreed with them is that they are going to ensure that their agents pay the business levy and in future the phone companies will be paying directly on behalf of the agents because there is also the issue of these agents producing fake receipts issued by whoever, to the phone companies pretending to have been issued by the council or another authority. What we do as local authorities, even in other businesses if they don’t pay we close them down.”