Ox Brown

Last week we heard officials from the Lusaka City Council pronounce another decree as has been their tradition since the old one party state which died several decades ago.

The legacy of the former command economy and form of governance still lives on in several government and civic institutions. Some Civil Servants and Council Officials still see themselves as little dictators that act in the public interest, without consulting their constituents or paying any attention to basic common sense.

The latest decree comes in the form of an ultimatum to business houses in the Kamwala business district of Lusaka, to paint their premises in an Ox Brown colour!

When the news broke out in both the printed media as well as on the broadcast media, one could not help but to sigh and exclaim, ‘here we go again.’ Another hair brained scheme to make business more uncomfortable, expensive, and another new item with which the Council can attack business houses. This move opens up a new channel for bribery, corruption and extortion.

We should not be surprised to see that within the next few weeks the market prices of Ox Brown paint will shoot up to double or triple the current going rate, due to the Council generated demand.

There may even be a possibility that a paint manufacturer that specializes in Ox Brown, or has a huge amount of Ox Brown colourant in stock, has had an influence on the choice of the colour by the Lusaka City Council. Could there be grounds for some corruption even at this early stage of the program?

Anyway, Councils all over the world seldom dictate what colour a town or district must be painted in, except for the good old Communist days in the East. What is more prevalent in a liberalized economy and a democratic state, is the demand that buildings be painted every other year, immediately after the rainy season. And this is enshrined in the By-laws of the local Council.

This continued dictatorial tendency by the Council is not backed by the various Wards and their representatives, and if left unchecked, will soon evolve to include new laws on what colour clothes we must wear, what type of shoes we must put on, how we must present our hair, and what we must eat.

Lusaka is plagued with uncollected waste dumped alongside the roads, common sights of dead animal carcasses on the roads that are eventually smeared into the tarmac by all those spinning tyres, no road names on many roads, no road signs at most junctions, no storm drains to prevent flooding, and so on. The Council seems to prefer to focus on areas where they can agitate a fight and make life miserable for others, rather than to provide the basic services that it annually promises to deliver to its residents.

Cholera and Dysentery are looming epidemics at the onset of the Rainy Season, but the Council seems not to care about this as they have never been held accountable over the years. Furthermore, Malaria threatens Lusaka residents between November and May every year, but no major plan is in motion to eradicate this mass killer disease except for trying to deal with the yearly impact on a need-to-basis.

There are some basic challenges that the Lusaka City Council must respond to instead of wasting its time and energy on prescribing what paint the private sector should use on its buildings, or buses, or taxis etc.

Trading Licenses demand that business houses must be inspected by the Council for Fire Safety, Sanitation conditions, proper Electrical installations, Public Fire Escape facilities, Car Parks, proper Construction of Buildings, Public Conveniences, Ventilation etc. before the license is issued. Does the council actually carry out these inspections? Or is a Trading License now issued on the basis of the applicant paying the appropriate fee? Liquor Licenses are supposed to be issued after careful inspection of the business premises as highlighted above, but in addition, measures are supposed to be put in place to prevent under aged youth from having access to both purchasing liquor and consuming it. Is the Council inspecting drinking places for these malpractices when the businesses are in full operation? Are the appropriate on-site signs to inform the public about the regulations on liquor sales and consumption being checked by the Council? What checks is the Council making in respect to Fire Hazards at Fuel Stations? How many people have been arrested or even cautioned for smoking on the premises of a Petrol Station? What alternate routes have been negotiated by the Council for public minibuses to service otherwise un-serviced areas of the City such as Kamloops Road, Thabo Mbeki Road, and Addis Ababa Road to name just a few examples? What plans are under way to decongest the Kamwala business district by routing traffic to Kafue Road through a more solid road than the existing track that threatens to destroy any smaller vehicle than a four wheel drive? Is the Council satisfied with the new traffic re-routing that now goes through the Kamwala residential area because of the previous congestion that was a traffic nightmare at the Independence Avenue Premium House junction? What impact has this had on residents, children and the residential roads?

Lusaka City Council must become more serious about its mandate from the Lusaka residents. Let’s stop being petty and a nuisance to the private sector with these punitive and dictatorial outbursts that can only be described as a disincentive to serious investments in the City. Let’s tackle the more important issues of servicing the City and uplifting the lives of our residents to develop a platform for social and economic growth that this expanding City sorely deserves.

Keyboard and typing practice shows us that the sentence; ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lean lazy dog’ contains all the letters of the alphabet. This Ox Brown paint demand may compel Lusaka residents to dump out the mean lazy Council.

Published 27 November 2007