Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale has announced that Lusaka’s Kalingalinga Police post has been sold to a developer who intends to construct a shopping mall.

Responding to a Tweet from a concerned citizen Sipho Phiri who wondered how the community would survive without a police station.

“They have sold Kalingalinga Police Post…I’ve been making improvements there for the past year thinking it was a long term community benefit. Can’t believe it…soooo many people without a police station,” Phiri posted.

But Mwale said the police station would not be demolished until the developer constructed a new one near by.

“There is a developer who will construct a mall where Mayela is but since the place is small he has taken up land surrounding Mayela including the police post, he will rebuild a better police post at a nearby place. The old one will not be demolished until the new one is in place,” wrote Mwale.

“Let’s put it this way, Kalingalinga is an unplanned settlement & as the place gets upgraded, developers & residents will have to shuffle things around in order to accommodate new developments. The bottom line is nothing belonging to the community shld be lost.”

However, enraged citizens wondered what the obsession with shopping malls was.

Dai Njobvu wrote: What is this obsession with malls that important public amenities are treated like they are trivial matters in the pursuit of the “grand malls”.

Michael Kroupnik wrote: The obsession with malls is market driven, nothing to do with Govt. Govt should not let this obsession though sideline or eliminate basic societal needs such as a police station

Muloongo Muchelemba wrote: Unlike the Zamtel acquisition by Lap Green, most of these deals have been done in such a shady manner that there could be legal grounds to repossess them in 2021.

Mthoniswa Banda wrote: Kikikiki sounds funny! How can a #police station be closed? #Zambia must be trending on #corruption & bad #governance

Responding to some of the concerns, Mwale wrote; “I share your view on malls,they take the place of our pipo who survive on tuntembas (mostly women) but how far can we go stopping the private sector who own private land from investing in malls, maybe we shld think more of what we need to do to hav Zambian products in these malls.”