Africa-Press – Zambia. THE Lower Lupande Hunting Block community has cried out to President Hakainde Hichilema to hear them regarding the cancelled safari hunting concession agreements.
Ministry of Tourism permanent secretary Evans Muhanga has cancelled concession agreements signed in 2020 for 19 hunting blocks across the country, against legal advice from the Attorney General.
Representing the Kakumbi Community Resource Board in the Eastern Province’s Lupande Game Management Area, Petros Muyunda said people were heavily affected because they had lost out on income.
“For us we are heavily affected because we get money from hunting activities. We depend much on hunting income. So, we lost jobs. We lost money because us we do not keep cattle in the valley here. We depend on meet that they give us from the hunting process,” he told The Mast. “There are a lot of things that have been heavily affected because we have serious loss of employment in this industry. Again, revenue for the CRBs (Community Resource Boards), for the community scouts to pay the people that work for the development projects for the communities… And operation of the CRB is now greatly affected.” He urged the government to listen, adding that it was the reason people voted for them.
“The government should learn to listen to the people. We laboured a lot to bring in the new dawn government. We had the hope that they would listen to our problems because we used to face the same challenges with the PF. When we were singing about this, them they used to give us money, and at some point, they were listening,” Muyunda said. “Them, (UPND), they don’t want to dialogue with us. They don’t want to talk to us. Already we are having a meeting in Eastern Province and we have invited the [permanent secretary] PS to come, he has turned down the invitation. All the chiefs are around. We have about eight to 10 chiefs. We’re at Crystal Springs Hotel. But the PS is not there. He can’t even assign because when the PS is not there it means the PS is not alone. There is the director, there’s the deputy. There are so many people working around there. So, there’s somebody who can represent the PS to hear the problems of the people.”
Muyunda said since subordinates were not listening to communities, they had to appeal to President Hichilema. He said people in the community were in problems because there was no more income for them.
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