Manyinga: From A Roadside Lay By To An Administrative Town

Michael Sata

By Paul Shalala in Manyinga

Manyinga has been a village for decades.

It is actually a bus stop or lay by on the main road between Mufumbwe and Kabompo Districts in the North Western Province.

Buses that ply the Mufumbwe-Kabompo road used to stop at Manyinga to pick or drop passengers.

For truck drivers, Manyinga was their lay by where they used to stop and get a nap before proceeding on their days-long journeys. 

But this roadside community is slowly turning into a town and may possibly be a city in the coming decades.

Since late Zambian President Michael Sata declared it a district in November 2012, Manyinga has seen some change.

It is now an administrative center for this agricultural community.

At its declaration in 2012, Manyinga had no infrastructure befitting a district.

Now government has started constructing various structures to host its various departments.

Over five local and international contractors have been engaged to build the Manyinga District Administration, Civic Center, Police Station and Agriculture offices among others.

Simuliya Trading Limited was given a contract to build the office block for the district administration.

So far, the Chinese-owned company has finished the first slab and is hopeful of completing the whole project by October this year.

Hu Sung is the supervisor at the site and he has concerns about local materials being used to build the structures.

"We will complete in October but this sand we are using is cracking too much. It is delaying our progress," said Hu.

Chingola-based Toshiber Limited is building the Civic Center and two staff houses at the cost of K6.9 million.

35 residents of Manyinga are lucky to have been employed to build their own civic center.

At the construction site

"We commenced works in February this year and so far so good. We hope to complete within the 14 months period we were given in the contract," said Felix Simukoko, Operations Director at Toshiber Limited.

With Manyinga's history of being a farming area, Kashimushi Construction has been contracted to build 16 offices for the Department of Agriculture and works have  have now reached window level.

Government has further engaged Hero Construction Company to build the first ever Police Station in the district and works are at slab level.

Senior Chief Sikufele allocated a huge track of land to allow government build its various departments for better administration of the new district.