Kabwe Town Clerk Ronald Daka has disclosed that the municipality is in three months’ salary arrears while those in top management have not been paid for five months.
Speaking, Wednesday, when senior citizens of Natuseko Small Holding in Kaputula ward, Kabwe Central constituency engaged the Central Province Permanent Secretary to intervene in the problem of lack of access roads in the farming bloc, Daka lamented that the Local Authority had no money to come up with access roads in the area.
“We would like to provide access roads except that we don’t have the money to do so right now. We even have salary arrears now. For the majority of workers its three months while for the top management its 6 months,” Daka said.
The Town Clerk described the past two years as torrid because of mostly the court cases that the municipality had been battling with.
He said the challenges that the Local Authority went through had taken a toll on the municipality making it difficult to provide services effectively.
“I will be very honest PS, the past few year have just been horrible because we were doing nothing other than appearing in court. So how do you raise revenue like that? And in June 2017, our land agency was suspended. I will of course, check from my predecessors records to see what sort of development charges were paid because that’s the money that should be used to attend to such issues,” said Daka.
Central Province Permanent Secretary Bernard Chomba, however, assured the farmers in Natuseko Small Holding that their concerns would be addressed.
Chomba said he would engage Kabwe Central Constituency Member of Parliament, Tutwa Ngulube to find a lasting solution to the problem.
He directed the Local Authority to get to the site to ascertain what would be required to come up with access roads.
“Government values the contribution of small scale farmers to the economy and remains committed to addressing any challenges that you may be facing. I shall engage the area MP to see how best this matter can be resolved,” said Chomba.
Natuseko Small Holding has about 53 farmers who are crying for access roads to be constructed for easy access to markets.
