LUSAKA CITY COUNCIL TO ARREST PARENTS "The council will age parents whose underage children are found patronising night clubs"

 

 THE Lusaka City Council has warned that it will arrest parents whose underage children are found patronising night clubs.

LCC assistant Public Relations Officer Brenda Katongola said in an interview recently that the local authority has observed that some parents were negligent towards their children.

“Some parents are not concerned about the whereabouts of their children, regardless of the time,” she said.  

Meanwhile, Ms Katongola also complained about the low staffing levels of council police officers which has made it difficult for the local authority to apprehend bar owners who abrogate the trading hours.

Ms Katongola said there is need to beef up the council police to apprehend bar owners abrogating laws on the trading hours.

She said since the law was effected in 2012, a number of bar owners have continued abrogating the law.

“We do conduct periodical operations on those bar owners who do not operate within the stipulated trading hours but it has been a challenge”, Ms Katongola said.

She also warned street vendors selling alcohol in makeshift stores to desist from the act.

She said alcohol must be sold in designated places and not in makeshift stores by the roadside.

“The law will take its course on those who will be found wanting once we pounce on them”, she said.

Prisoners should be allowed to vote’

GOVERNMENT has observed that the current Constitution should be amended to allow prisoners to participate in general elections.
And the Ministry of Home Affairs has said there is need for stakeholders and Government to undertake feasibility studies on how countries like South Africa and Netherlands have managed to handle the aspect of prisoners’ voting.
The Zambian Constitution does not allow prisoners to participate in elections due to security concerns.
Home Affairs spokesperson Moses Suwali said that prisoners are also human beings who should be allowed to take part in elections as it is their fundamental right.
He said prisoners have been disenfranchised for a long time now and “I am urging non-governmental organisations and all stakeholders to begin to advocate for prisoners”.
Additionally, Mr Suwali said when the Constitution is amended; Government will start setting up polling stations in prisons to allow prisoners to vote.
“This is an important area that has been overlooked for a long time and is worth exploring”, he said.
Mr Suwali said the feasibility studies that need to be conducted should take into consideration if elections campaigns will also be allowed to take place in prisons.
“Are we also going to allow polling stations to be set up in prisons or will prisoners will be taken to existing polling stations to vote? These are critical issues we need to look at and study carefully from the countries that have managed this process,” he said.
There have been media reports by Prisons Care and Counselling Association (PRISCA) for Government to allow prisoners to start participating in elections.

Chilanga school to spend K120,000 on girls’ ablution block

ABOUT K120,000 will be spent on the construction of an ablution block of girl-friendly showers at Chilanga primary school in a bid to help schoolgirls manage their menstruation.
And the school has included the procurement of sanitary wear for schoolgirls.
School head teacher Kenneth Muleya confirmed in an interview recently that works to construct showers are progressing well and will be completed before the end of this year.
Mr Muleya said once the showers are complete girls will no longer miss class because they will have facilities to maintain personal hygiene and cleanliness when they are at school.
He said “Apart from helping our girls manage their menstrual periods through the procurement of sanitary wear; our teachers hold regularly talks with the girls so that they understand the whole cycle and how they can manage it”.
Meanwhile, Mr Muleya said the revised curriculum on the introduction of information communication technology (ICTs) in schools has received overwhelming response from both parents and pupils.
He said Chilanga member of Parliament Keith Mukata recently donated 20 computers to the school which has enhanced the teaching and learning of ICTs.
“We can safely say we are getting there in terms of the learning of ICTs in schools but there are still some challenges; pupils cannot utilise the computers due to power outages being experienced countrywide”, said Mr Muleya.
And he has since advised parents in the area to continue taking their young children to early learning centres.
Mr Muleya said early learning is good for the development of every child and must be treated so by parents and guardians.

‘When digital billboards become a nuisance’

DIGITAL billboards are increasingly becoming the standard way of advertising in Zambia particularly in the capital, Lusaka.
Found at almost every corner of the busy streets, digital bill boards command numerous advantages.
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure, typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads
The digital bill board is the preferred mode advertising because when placed along highways or busy streets, it is a guarantee that people will see it as it can be placed where the most impact can be felt.
And passers-by normally get hooked to the scrolling adverts and are therefore, attracted.
But how about when digital board bill become a distraction particularly to motorists driving in the night?
Yes, today, the light and brightness emanating from digital bill boards at the night have become what motorists describe as an eyesore.
Mwila Sikombwa, a motorist of Lusaka said the brightness emanating from the digital bill boards is too much for the eyes, especially when one is driving at night.
He noted that when the brightness and light is too much for the eyes, a motorist can easily cause an accident.
“You know when light becomes too much it is possible for one to cause an accident and kill innocent people”, he said.
Meanwhile, Felix Banda another motorist appealed to the relevant authorities to order the companies responsible for mounting digital bill boards to reduce the intensity of light emanating from the bill boards.
Mr Banda said inasmuch as digital bill boards are good for advertising, there should be consideration for the motorists as regards accidents.
The plea by motorists has reached the ears of the local authorities who have since asked the multimedia companies to reduce the light from digital bill boards to avoid accidents.
During a physical inspection of digital bill boards in Lusaka recently, deputy mayor Portipher Tembo charged that all multimedia companies should reduce the lighting coming from their bill boards.
As he inspected the bill board at Woodlands Shopping Mall roundabout that was mounted by Continental Outdoor Media, Mr Tembo was dismayed that the bill board business that is bringing in revenue to the council was somewhat contributing to the loss of lives.
Mr Tembo suggested that the multimedia companies must reduce the lighting from bill boards to at least three percent brightness from the current five percent.
The deputy mayor also raised an issue with the location of most bill boards. He noted that sometimes, it was disturbing to find that the location of some bill boards were an obstruction to motorists from having a clear view of where they were going.
And Council director engineering services Maliwa Muchuu expressed shock over the failure by some companies to remove digital bill boards despite being written to.
He said motorists raised complaints of having accidents at that Woodlands Shopping Complex because of the brightness coming from the bill boards and called for their removal.
But Continental Outdoor Media business development and operations manager Sekani Nkhata confirmed having been written to but they were waiting for guidelines on where to place their bill board once it is moved from the present location.
Mr Nkhata said: “We have been waiting for the council and Road Transport Safety Agency to tell us where to place the bill board; up to now, we have not been told. We have no problem removing it and reducing its brightness. We will send our people to inspect the intensity of the light at night to ascertain where the problem is”.
He said during the day, their bill board brightness is at 100 percent but is reduced to five percent at night.
However, promised to further reduce the lightning system to maybe three percent in accordance in line with demands from motorists who are usually affected.
A study by Virginia Tech in the United States (2006) found anything that takes a driver’s eyes off the road for more than two seconds greatly increases the risk of a crash.
That study found nearly 80 per cent of all crashes involve driver inattention within three seconds of the crash.
And Swedish and German researchers in a study in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention published in January 2013, found that digital billboards attract and hold drivers’ gazes longer than the threshold that previous studies had shown to be dangerous.
The study found that drivers looked at these colourful, rapidly changing billboards significantly longer than they do at other signs on the same stretch of road – the digital versions often took a driver’s eyes off the road for more than two seconds.