Katambalala marketeers censure their leaders

ABRAHAM BANDA writes

SOME marketeers of George Compound’s Katambalala market have accused their leaders of gross mismanagement of the facility.
They claimed that their leaders were fond of misusing funds for the people instead of developing the market.
The marketeers, who refused to be mentioned, complained that despite paying council fees of K2 and market
fee of K1 everyday they did not know where that money went.
“This is because we cannot see any development that comes from our contributions.
“We pay K2 council fee and K1 marketing fee but we don’t know where that money goes. And now we are also
requested to be paying K2 every Saturday for garbage collection. And soon we will be paying another tax whose
details we don’t know” one of the female marketeers said.
Another marketeer also complained about the security lights which had not been operating for some time now.
She said that the lights were disconnected by an individual suspected to be former chairman of the market.
The moment he was dropped as chairman, she said, that the man decided to disconnect power to the market
and the facility has had no power since then.
“The lights were connected by an individual person who was our chairman at that time. But he disconnected
them when he was dropped from that position in 2017,
“As a result we are forced to knock off early because we only rely on the light from the sun. And when it’s late,
we are not safe because it becomes too dark,” she said
Another marketeer said that the current crop of leaders did not allegedly call people for meetings to discuss
matters which affected the market.
“We do not have meetings to discuss and resolve matters which affect our market. We should at least have a
meeting once in a month but this does not happen,” she said
Many marketeers had since decided to leave for other markets in the hope of being in better hands of leaders.
“Other marketeers have now left the market to join nearby Mukuma Market where there is a lot of business,
”she said