I SAY hats off to Ndola City fathers, Government and cooperating donors for a job well done on Broadway, a vital artery into the city and headquarters of the mineral-rich Copperbelt Province.
Renovations, which started early this year, have been completed and driving up and down from the Ndola Central Hospital roundabout to the point where traffic flows into President Avenue has once again become pleasurable.
Rehabilitation work on Macha Road in Northrise, whose terrible state of disrepair I wrote about some time back, has commenced.
Readers will probably recall that it is on this road where I often had the privilege of being given lifts by former president Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s son Masuzgo.
Dr Kaunda is on record as being the first head of State worldwide to publicly declare that he had lost one his sons to HIV and AIDS.
Masuzgo, a humble, affable and gifted musician died on December 21, 1986.
To some of us who knew him he could have easily become the Joseph Kabila of Zambia. He was a man of the people.
Many other roads within the city, including Kabompo Road, are being rehabilitated. But is anyone doing anything about the Ndola-Mufulira highway?
The road has been in crying need of repair for a long a time.
The old colonial Public Works Department (PWD) used to be quite efficient when it comes to road maintenance.
When I look back I often wonder why it was discarded for the inefficient Mechanical Services Department (MSD) after Independence in 1964.
The PWD management ensured roads and other infrastructure in European residential areas and African townships were constantly maintained.
I remember my mother taking food to construction sites in Fort Roseberry, as Mansa was called then, and Samfya where he worked as a bricklayer.
PWD workers were always kept on their toes, which should explain why towns like Luanshya and Chingola in the 1950s and early 1960s developed into model garden cities.
Some three ago I visited Luanshya for the first time in nearly 20 years and was shocked at what I found and saw of what has become of this once ever green town.
As you enter the town, the greens and flower gardens that used to greet the visitor are no more.
In fact the greens, on both sides of the road leading into the once flourishing central business district (CBD), have been demarcated and allocated to private individuals as residential plots.
The place looks horrible especially that some of the structures erected on those plots cannot be said to be among the best.
One even wonders whether they met requirements of the country and planning Act.
For old times’ sake I drove all the way to Mpatamato where my wife wanted us to visit her cousin Thomas Nyangulu via old Roan Antelope Consolidated Copper Mine (RCM) plant; and Kafubu Stadium, the home ground my favourite team, ‘Stylish’ Roan United which produced top strikers like Boniface Simutowe, Willie Chifita, Joseph Mapulanga, Bernard ‘Bomber’ Chanda, Sandy Kaposa, Ginger Pensulo, Dyson Mugala and Zambia national goalkeepers Happy Malama, Emmanuel Mwape and his brother, Ken.
I also remember officials who made the club tick in those days, like Ben Evans and Edward Matale.
If it had not been for new investors Luanshya, a town that used to teem with so much life and boasted of football clubs like the ‘Indomitable’ Luanshya All-Blacks, cricket, bowls, rugby, tennis and a modern golf course, would have degenerated into a ghost town.
Some internal roads, particularly in former elite white suburbs, are so bad that they are virtually impassable as former tarred roads have developed into gravel roads due to non-maintenance.
However, the main roads from the CBD to various townships, all the way to Ibenga Girls Secondary School and Mpongwe in Ndola Rural, and have been rehabilitated.
Upon enquiring, a marketer we found selling airtime in Mpatamato Township told me, “Awe naba bomba saana pa-misebo (when it comes to road works, the Patriotic Front guys have done a splendid job).
I wish the same could be said of the roads leading economically productive region of Lumwana, the Chingola-Solwei highway in particular.
The Kitwe-Chingola dual carriage way that President Michael Sata launched is progressing according to plan, I am told my frequent travellers on this vital artery connecting Zambia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) via Kasumbalesa border gate.
This route is set get even busier once the proposed Kazungula Bridge over the Zambezi River to link Botswana and Zambia is completed.
Happily, I understand local investors like former MMD Republican Vice President Enock Kavindele, who plans to construct a railway line on the same stretch right up to Angola on the Atlantic Ocean coast, are mobilising resources that could help revolutionise the transport network and the lives of Zambian people in the Northwestern Province.
And as Apostle Cedric Chitungulu recently drove me to the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (KKIA) in Lusaka, I noticed that the Great East Road – from Chelston-Avondale area – was being repaired, which is good for international tourists/visitors entering the country. They say first impressions are crucial.
As we drove on I also noticed that work on the proposed expansion of KKIA’s runway had started, as previously announced.
I have not been to Livingstone lately, but I am told by every traveler that after the United Nations (UN) World Tourism Conference that Zambia and Zimbabwe co-hosted, Zambia’s tourist capital is now the place to be.
All the roads in the city have been upgraded such that Livingstone is even stealing the thunder from its Zimbabwean neighbour, Victoria Falls Town on the other side of the Zambezi.
The bad news is the Pedicle Road project where works have been painfully slow.
According to former Zambia and Ndola United defensive kingpin Moses Kabaila who recently travelled to Mansa, via the Levy Mwanawasa Bridge, nothing much is taking place.
According to him, everything has come a complete standstill.
“Tapali ifyo balechita (they are doing nothing). I do not understand what their problem is. Balibapela indalama (they have been given enough funds for the project) but they are doing nothing,” he said with a sense of frustration because a 60-minute journey takes , on average, three hours due to the poor state of the road.
May be authorities should approach the contractors who have refurbished Ndola’s Broadway in a record time (and probably within budget) so that the Pedicle blues could become a thing of the past.
Comments: alfredmulenga@gmail.com