Lusaka City Council (LCC) Public Relations Officer Henry Kapata says a total of 169 underage patrons that were recently apprehended for patronizing bars have been counseled.
Mr. Kapata told Zanis in an interview in Lusaka today that the juveniles were counseled by a combined team of LCC personnel, a clergy, and representatives from the Victim Support Unit of the Zambia Police Service.
Mr. Kapata explained that 69 of those that were counseled were 13 years old and the rest range from 15 to 17 years old.
He said after this exercise the LCC will get the necessary information from the juveniles because at some point they will be used as witnesses against the bar owners that allowed them to drink on their premises.
Mr. Kapata said the cases will be heard in camera and will strictly follow the laws that govern the rights of juveniles. He further said the juveniles will be allowed to go back to their respective homes during this period because they will have been reformed.
He said they will also help identify the bars that do not follow the rules of the land by admitting underage patrons.
And Mr. Kapata has appealed to the Grade 12 school leavers of this year to celebrate their completion with their parents at home in a peaceful manner. He said the local authority will not relent in arresting lawbreakers in the country in an effort to bring order and sanity in the country.
Recently a combined team of LCC police and the Zambia Police Service pounced on bar owners that were admitting and selling alcohol to underage patrons. The juveniles were detained at LCC in an effort to get them counseled.
ZANIS
counseling is not a one-off issue. to me the greatest culprits are the bar owners who allow under age patronage. I guess there are laws that if enforced can curb this issue to some extent.
ofcourse it is easy to do the counselling but it should always be accompanied by a followup,which am afraid in this case wont be possible.So the chaps will just end up going back to the same clubs.
I watched the cops arresting these minors.. the Cops are as brutal as as those who beat Rodney King … is this the only work the buju is doing now
I know the kids shouldn’t be drinking but surely do they deserve to be manhandle by the “Police Force”
I haven’t hear of any bar being close because of selling alcohol to minors… Who is selling the booze to them…..
Cut the source …
This is a loop-sided way of fighting underage drinking. The quick fix is to arrest the bar owners that serve the underage. You know which bars sell alcohol to minors and there is a law against that. Why not enforce the law instead of harrasing children. You can give them all the counselling on earth but if you do not address the bar owner’s reckless conduct, it will all be in vain.
Those kids are victims of both the bar owners and police force brutality.The police are getting money from bar owners.Its the same nonsense with DEC,they arrest and brutalise the dobo smoker instead of catching the pedlers of the dobo.Zambian jails are full of ” Drug Dealers” who in reality are not.For as longer as the police remain untamed Zambians will continue suffering human rights abuses.Why call this thing a “Police Service” when all it does is not serve the people but brutalise them with force and even extra-judicial killings.99.99% of the police in Zambia are brutes!!
#5 for as long as!
The decaying morals of the society. Lets face it people, we have really messed up our culture and who can you blame? is it us the youths, or the elderly generation? We need alot of rehabilitation centers and try to sort this mess up. What happened to “No Under 18”? When aba fyashi are the ones sending us sometimes to buy beers for them. The policy of Kaunda were an underage cant get near 50m from the bar, yenze che,,,,,,,,lets try to combat this unfortunate behaviour among our children.
The decaying morals of the society. Lets face it people, we have really messed up our culture and who can you blame? is it us the youths, or the elderly generation? We need alot of rehabilitation centers and try to sort this mess up. What happened to “No Under 18”? When aba fyashi are the ones sending us sometimes to buy beers for them. The policy of Kaunda were an underage cant get near 50m from the bar, yenze che,,,,,,,,lets try to combat this unfortunate behaviour among our children. We are victims of our own doings…
1.Pass a law restricting clubs NOT to sale liquor to kabudoz 2.give these arrested chaps some strokes on the matakoz 3.then counsel them 4.revive sporting recreational activities in townships / komboniz.
PROBLEM THEN SHALL BE SOLVED.
Under-age drinking is a symptom.A symptom is an external sign indicating that something is SERIOUSLY wrong deep inside.You cannot cure a disease by merely obscuring or blocking out or covering up a symptom.
Iwe Henry Kapata,couselling is covering up the symptom.check the  remedies (four steps to cure) in my posting @ number 9 above.
Look after the future leaders please IMITI IKULA EMPANGA, the officers cant close the bars or clubs,coz they patronize the same bars and clubs when they knockoff from work.Pa Zambia a lot needs to be done,SURE more than 30 people dying in road accidents in a single week,120 in a month,AND IN A YEAR? IT IS VERY VERY SAD.BANDA UYO,BUSY TALKING ABOUT SATA’S UGLINESS.SHAME.
As usual the bar/club owners will just get a slap on the wrist because they are well connected.That is the level of corruption in our country today.
Good work ba polioce and LCC. These chaps needs strokes by the cane! Decaying morals start with educated people. Parenting of nowadays is so poor. Because people think it’s modern to let your kids do what ever they like. In the olden days any elderly person could discpline any child from the neighbourhood whom they found misbehaving nowadays parents will insult their neighbour for reprimanding their children. Such problems don’t exist in the villages where culture is still respected. # 8 you will notice that akale even when the parents sent a child to buy beer that child could never drink because the parents were strict. One could taste from what remained in the bottle but never sit down and buy on your own. This new generation is dead!! Kwasila!
Its sad that bars allow kids to drink as long as they have money to buy. If it was up to me to put measures to stop this, i would bring in a bylaw that only allows a person with ID (NRC, drivers License, passport, etc ) on them to enter the bar regardless of how old they look. That way, kids will not be allowed to enter the bars. Some people will argue to say how many people carry ID’s in Zambia, well that system works in Canada and the US and am sure it can work anywhere else. In these country people need ID’s on them to prove their ages regardless of how old they look. That Zambian system of ‘uli na ndevu?’ (do you have a beard?) will not work. Having a beard or a big a$$ for women doesn’t mean one is old enough to drink. Zenon is one of the culprits for allowing kids into bars