I would like to voice my concern over the condition of the Mungwi Road, Lusaka West.
The development along this road in recent years has been exponential in terms of new factories and housing developments.
In addition, the aggregate quarries have become increasingly active, not to mention the explosion of informal housing that has sprung up in the last three years.
All this has meant that the traffic on Mungwi Road has increased several fold.
Our farm business is about 12 kms west on this road and we have a fleet of several vehicles that travel this road on a daily basis. In my opinion, this road eventually should become a dual carriage-way from about the Kasupe Turnoff to Lusaka.
However, my immediate concern is the terrible and deteriorating condition of this major trunk in-road to Lusaka.  All other in-roads to Lusaka are in reasonable condition, but it seems, the Mungwi Road has been neglected.
With the increasing traffic, especially with all the heavy duty aggregate carrying trucks, fuel trucks etc, and with each rainy season, the road deteriorates further. At the very least the Kansanshi Road junction and the Katanga Road junction leading to Lenco and Tiger Animal Feeds should be repaired as a matter of urgency.
The potholes at those two junctions are so deep that the traffic has to crawl at snail pace just to negotiate the dips which cause huge traffic build ups on a daily basis. During rush hour and on Friday afternoons they become horrendous.
Surely the Road Development Agency should prioritise these two junctions and the Government should really look at refurbishing this extremely deteriorated but busy trunk road.
Mr Bland
Concerned motorist

Reduce voting age

The people of Zambia exercise power through their vote. However, no one is allowed to vote until they reach the age of 18.
This is not fair to the youth below 18 as they are denied the right to vote. The general feeling is that the voting age should be brought down to 16.
The main reason for advocating for a reduction in the voting age is that the law limiting voting the voting age was enacted several decades ago.
The economic, cultural, educational and psychological transformation Zambia has gone through means that today’s 16-year-old boys or girls have grown up in a completely different environment compared to those for whom the law was made.
The communication and technological revolution, especially the advent of the Internet, has meant that the 16-year-olds are more knowledgeable and have a keener appreciation of economic, cultural and political issues affecting them than ever before.
Their voices have to be heard through the ballot box; Government decisions and public actions affect them equally.
Agness N. Kaputa
St John Convent School

Livingstone Times cheers ZTB

WE at Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) wish to sincerely congratulate and salute you and your entire team at Times of Zambia for coming up with a by-weekly Livingstone Times supplement.
Without doubt, the supplement is an added platform for Livingstone to market itself as a tourist capital of Zambia and showcase the tourism products to both locals and the international market as the paper is online too.  It is our sincere hope that the tourism industry will take advantage of the availed opportunity to sell their products. You are guaranteed of our support whenever we can. Well done once more.
Jocelyn
Mutinta
ZTB Promotional Manager