Women stone crushers cry for empowerment
Written by Millennium on March 18, 2019
BUUMBA CHIMBULU writes
@SunZambia
WOMEN stone crushers in Lusaka’s Kuku compound have called for empowerment from honest entrepreneurial organisations and Government.
The stone crushers are located behind Diamonds of Lusaka on Kafue road.
One of the stone crushers only identified as amake Naomi, who refused to give her full names complained that a named entrepreneurial centre made them pay K175 each for training and promised them that they would in turn be given K500 each.
She explained in an interview with the Sun that the organisation then disappeared and did not give them the promised K500 after paying K175.
“We paid K175 each to be taught about business and we were given certificates but our money was not refunded, we were told that we will get our money with interest. They were supposed to give us K500 each and it has now been a year,
“How can we leave our money there instead of buying mealie meal for our children? Business is slow because plots have have been developed. We used to sell a lot of stones at a time when people were still building,” she said.
Another crusher identified as Ms Musole complained that the group was only used during the campaign period and forsaken afterwards.
Ms Musole explained that some politicians during the last campaigns promised to empower them but never got back to them when elections were over.
“People used us to get money. They do not want to empower us. They promised us empowerment, at some point they took us to the National Construction Centre to teach us how to make cobble stones and how to make pavers but that programme died after elections,
“Some politicians came to see us during campaigns making me hold that heavy harmer to crush tones but up to now, nothing has happened,” she said.
