Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa says Hybrid management will one day wake up and not find their chicken statue on the Chainama roundabout, for breaching his guideline.

And Sampa says the Hybrid managing director has been disobedient to him as an elected mayor.

In February this year, Sampa directed Hybrid Poultry Farming to remove its chicken statue from the Chainama roundabout within two weeks, saying it was not conforming to the council standards.

But the following month, Sampa gave another 60-day period to allow the company build a suitable stand for the chicken outside the roundabout.

Lusaka residents had taken to social media to protest the mayor’s intentions to remove the chicken statute.

However, in his WhatsApp group “Lusaka Mayor Media Alert”, Monday, a reporter asked him whether the chicken statue had won since it was over three months since his directive, Sampa said Hybrid management was in breach of his guideline, warning that the day he would wake up in a bad move, he would remove the chicken.

“The guideline stands and Hybrid is in breach. If I wake up in a good or bad mood one day, Hybrid MD will wake up and not find the chicken and if he goes to court, he will lose as he has no contract with the Council and he has not paid for the rights to advertise at that roundabout,” Sampa responded.

“In the UK, a Zambian cannot defy a Mayor, never. Here, the British MD is disobedient to an elected Mayor, other non Zambians support their own, some unpatriotic Zambians support them too. Shocking.”

And Sampa says the only reason he had not yet pulled down the chicken was because some kids with “Grade Two handwriting” had asked him not to.

“I have not removed it not because of the defiant British MD but because of a few kids that wrote letters to me, in Grade two handwriting, asking me not to remove their nkunku (chicken) pet. They touched me and I am calm for now,” said Sampa.

“Policy is policy and must be followed by all, Zambians and non Zambians. It maybe the cleanest roundabout but that does not mean they should break guidelines. Other roundabouts are dirty because I found LCC had given them all to one company and which is now not cleaning or maintaining the roundabouts properly. They all dirty. As a result, we are in the process of terminating that contract as there are several other companies knocking on our doors to sign maintenance and advertising contracts for the various roundabouts.”