By SYLVESTER MWALE –
THE Kabwe Municipal Council has applied for city status following the rapid increase in modern infrastructure and improved service delivery in the Central Province capital.
Kabwe Town Clerk Ronald Daka said in an interview that the town had met most of the fundamentals, including tarred roads and other modern infrastructure needed for it to be upgraded from a municipality.
Kabwe, formerly called Broken Hill, was declared a municipality in 1954 but its growth has literally stalled mainly because of the collapse of the mining industry.
However, recent years have witnessed the emerging of modern infrastructure, including roads and buildings as well as improved services by both the public and the private sectors which has forced the local authority to seek a higher status.
Mr Daka said at the sidelines of a stakeholders meeting on the ‘Kabwe we want’ that the application was made to the President in December last year.
He said that Kabwe was strategically located, and attaining the city status would boost investment in the town.
“We have all the fundamentals – a well-designed Central Business District, tarred roads and we will have a shopping mall and two public universities.
“We have also created one multi economic facility zone which will be driven by the private sector and we feel we can join Livingstone, Lusaka, Kitwe and Ndola in the elite status,” he said.
The stakeholders’ meeting was organised by the local authority in collaboration with the Central Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the aim of striking a common ground on the outlook of Kabwe as a city.
Mr Daka noted that the development of Kabwe into a city would require consented efforts from both the private and public sector.
In a separate interview, Central Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Felix Mang’wato said Kabwe had not benefited from infrastructure development that has been witnessed in other towns.
Mr Mang’wato said while Kabwe was centrally located, there was need to improve infrastructure and called on the private sector to work closely with the Government to achieve the objectives.
“The Government and the private sector should work closely. We should not fight change if we want to progress but instead let’s embrace change so that we have the Kabwe we want,” he said.