Africa-Press – Zambia. Following Minister of Home Affairs Jack Mwiimbu’s removal of police roadblocks in the country, Taxis and Bus Owners Association of Zambia have bemoaned the move saying it has deprived them of business opportunities.
Speaking in an interview in Kitwe yesterday, Association president Amis Daudi says the measure has left most taxis and bus owners without business since pirate transporters have taken advantage of the absence of road blocks to carry out business illegally.
“We welcome the pronouncement although it has left us without business, you know piracy has been the biggest challenge to us as taxis and bus owners and now the suspension of the road blocks has increased the number of pirate operators, there is need for the police to find a way of curbing piracy in the absence of officers on the road,” Mr Daudi lamented.
He however said that the move will help to remove congestion and inconvenience on roads which was caused by the numerous police snap checks points. However, Police Spokesperson Ester Katongo when contacted said the suspension of the road blocks was a temporal measure aimed at giving the command time to revisit the operations of traffic officers with regard to snap checks on the roads.
“The suspension is just for a certain period of time to allow the command to revisit the operations of traffic officers when it comes to snap check points so once that is done the traffic officers will still come back on the road.
“ The main essence is to revive and see how these can be operated and how they are going to be done because we found that there were a lot of these on one stretch which was an inconvenience to members of the public,” Ms Katongo said.
She further explained that police officers will still continue conducting high way patrols and will still be able to act and curb piracy when they see pirate operators.
Last week Home Affairs Minister Jack Mwiimbu announced the suspension of police snap check points on the roads except for designated check points. And this week Inspector General of Police Lemmy Kajoba released a list of formal check points all the provinces.
