Mbabala CDF car stoned – unknown youths demanding employment of locals ambush driver, stone vehicle, damaging the windscreen

By NATION REPORTER

NKNOWN youths in Mbabala Constituency have damaged the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) monitoring vehicle after their demands to have a local driver employed and the car being parked at the Constituency Office were not met.

The aggrieved youth, none of whom is known on Thursday last week waylaid Mr Joseph Munsanje, the Mbabala Member of Parliament at Mbabala boma and demanded to be addressed on why government had not employed a local driver from within the constituency.

Mr Munsanje when contacted over the incident confirmed that the new Toyota Land Cruiser CDF monitoring vehicle had been stoned by unknown people and had damaged the windscreen.

Mr Munsanje said the driver of the motor vehicle was on his way to Mbabala for the commissioning of the vehicle but was ambushed by unknown people who threw stones at him damaging the windscreen of the car.

He said the youth were protesting on the day the car was to be commissioned demanding that the vehicle should be parked within the constituency and that the Choma Municipal Council should consider employing a driver from within Mbabala.

“I can comfirm that the new CDF motor vehicle had its windscreen damaged after unknown people ambushed the driver by throwing stones. The driver was on his way to Mbabala for the commissioning of the car. On my way to the constituency, I found about 20 or more youths who had gathered at Mbabala demanding that I should address them. They were demanding that the Choma Council should employ a driver from within Mbabala and that the vehicle should be parked within the constituency,” Mr Munsanje said.

He explained that he told the youth that it was not possible to have the car parked within the constituency because there were no facilities in the area and that only one councillor was living within the constituency while the rest were in Choma.

Mr Munsanje said in his address, he informed the youth that the person responsible for the car was the Choma Town Clerk and that the vehicle was safer to be parked in Choma.

“The youth reaised the issue of the car being resident in Mbabala but I told them that the constituency was part of Choma. I explained to them that until and unless Mbabala was declared a district, the vehicle would have to be in Choma. The main function of the vehicle is to move engineers in the Constituency to assess the more than 70 projects for 2022 for technical appraisal and it is only logical that it should be parked at Choma Council. Our youths should not look at this one job for the driver but should be innovate and engage in other productive ventures,” Mr Munsanje said.