By Gerald Nkisu Katayi
Lawlessness according to Mr. Webster is something that is not regulated, restrained or controlled by law. Lawlessness therefore could mean; the law is being ignored. This attitude breeds anarchy.
Zambia is a beautiful country with wonderful people who live in harmony without creating atrocities for themselves due to differences in tribe, race, or religion like other countries in Africa and around the world.
Despite these positive attributes, Zambia remains a poor country in Africa with very high levels of poverty and diseases. To a degree this is due to lawlessness. A visit to down town in Lusaka will bring you to a group of women with small children selling fruits, fish, meat and vegetables by the road side. Pedestrians throwing banana skins at will, hawkers litter the streets with impunity. Street corners are turned into water closets leaving behind horrible stitch.
Every rain season uncollected piles of garbage remains an eye sore in many towns and cities. The less privileged that live in high density areas lose their loved ones to water borne diseases like cholera and dysentery because of the unsanitary conditions they inhabit. Some of these deaths could be avoided if civic education is reinforced, law and order restored.
Shanty compounds look like a gate way to hell. Lawlessness reign! Bars and Taverns open as early as five or six in the morning and close late the following day. Some operate 24 hours without authorization. These drinking places become the womb of evil where prostitution, child abuse, and diseases are conceived. And the end results are AIDS, poverty, crime and untimed deaths. Poverty should not send people to break the law; instead they should do what they do legally.
Unfortunately these characteristics are now not limited to peri- ubarn areas any more. A visit to Kabwata shows no difference. Prostitution is high; music from the bars is too loud; you can hear it a mile away. An unwanted pregnancy which leads to unplanned children among the teenage girls in this vicinity is growing.
How can sanity return to our society? The Local Government Act stipulates clearly how towns and cities must be managed. The guide lines ranges from drinking places, streets, buildings etc. For example, no illegal selling on the streets, Music should be enjoyed at a volume where you don’t annoy or disturb the neighbors. Under age drinking, prostitution, and using unauthorized areas to answer the call of nature is forbidden.
The people who drafted this Act were seeking for a civilized and progressive society. Chingola used to be the cleanest town in Zambia, Lusaka was a garden city. Today all that is gone with the wind. When lawlessness creeps in any society, decay, poverty and crime become the order of the day. This is where Zambia is heading…Cleanliness is closer to godliness!
Citizens should be reminded of the laws that govern their society every day by any means possible. The church and civic bodies must contribute by educating their constituencies. But above all; it is the responsibility of those with political power to regulate and reinforce the law.
This is very true: lawlessness has even extended to illegal acqusition of land by ruling MMD cadres with impunity. Even land on title, belonging to other people, has been invaded by thugs led by William Banda despite numerous Court orders and police being informed.
Land laws and local government acts simply exist on paper!
lawlessness is pronounced in a kaponya pf controlled councils on copperbelt and lusaka. ba #1 multi penny millionaire you must be s.tupid to allow william banda to come and grab your land or property unless if its not yours or you obtained it illegally. Anarchy is deep seated in pf thats what they are known for. the leader has always been known to be a violent man even his vuvuzela the post have written so much about sata and violence
Tat guy is PF kaponya member.Zambia must reject PF ngwa’ gwazi at all cost.if it means contributing a K1,000 each for VJ to rig election, ready yesterday..!
No. 2 – were you or your sister at the receiving end of Sata’s vuvuzela?
#2, what are you talking about? I thot the MMD thugs, led by there president, R something is the causer of all these problems Zambia is facing now. The guy has completely no idea on how to run the country. On a second thot, i dont blame him, i blame the late Levy (MHSRIP) for this trouble.
we need order & a sense of responsibility starting with each one of us.however,as evident from the comments on LT-civilisation is far fetched target.many of zambians are schooled not educated.
who was moving with a trunk of two billion kmacha at mulungushirock dishing out to cadres to harrass FTJ rivals. it was one michael chilufya sata. do you remember the chawama machette wielding thugs under the captainship of sata. who is a thug imwe mwebantu
The laws are there to govern our behaviour. Unfortunately there is absolute very little enforcement.
You are right. This is what sanity must address instead of witch hunting. Sata is a pragmatic leader that can help in correcting some of these misdeeds! In Zambia you need a bit of a strong hand of Sata’s caliber to stop some of these nosense.
The definition of lawlessness is Zambia. Example in point is Chiluba’s misrule and his aftermath statemans treatment by Banda. The President disregarded the law by engineering the aquittal of one Kafupi. Then if it is happening like that, what do you expect from ordinary citizens?
#2 – be civil in your debates. Insulting fellow bloggers demeans your analysis – you’re the only one using street language and reasoning. Even Sata whom you loathe is very civil!
NO. 9 you are a good analyst I totally agree with you this country need a very tough leader. You remeber the times of Dr Kaunda, during his press conferences when you hear him say……stupid *****s…all his cabinet minister will be shivering. and for sure we had minimal misdeeds in that era.such is a leader we want. Not sleepy, lazy dam leaders who just like ukuseya.
I find this article quite shallow in analysis. It is not lawlessness that has caused the unwanted vices like disease,HIV etc but rather it is the opposite! These vices are a result of the degrading economy! Symptoms you can say. The question is why are taverns opening at 5 am? People do not have jobs and any activity to do except drink! The bar owners are in business as well and will want to make as much money as possible! It is rainy season and the local government know their responsibility of handling solid waste but they do not have the funds because all the money generating channels have gone, council houses have been sold,and inadequate funding . In my opinion all these problems are as a result of a failing economy and naturally such activities will be inherent in such a set up.
#13. Are you trying to debate what comes first between the egg and the chiken? The failing of the ecomomy does not allow people to open bars at 5 am. Selling in the streets is not the result of the failing ecomomy either. Both of these people can do better and earn a good living by doing business the right way. Keep off the streets and go the market and contribute to the revenue of the city. Un emplyment can be over come if people can “think right” and not just to depend on a jobs from a given company. It is your analysis that is cheating you not the article. Thank you any way for sharing your thoughts.
#9 YOU ARE TALKING THE TRUTH. I ALWAYS TELL PEOPLE THAT THIS IS THE RIGHT TIME FOR SATA’s CALIBRE OF PEOPLE WITH A STRONG HAND TO SIMPLY CORRECT THINGS. I AGREE WITH YOU. SATA IS VERY PRAGMATIC. THEREFORE, THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB.
SATA IS PRAGMATIC INDEED HE KEEPS QUIET WHEN IT SUITES HIM. DISHING OUT TWO BILLION KWACHA TAX PAYERS MONEY,CUTTING EARS AND LIPS OF HIS PERCEIVED OPPONENTS IN CHAWAMA, AND BARRING 22 FELLOW MINISTERS WHO SAW CHILUBA GOING WRONG.DICTATORSHIP HAS NEVER WORKED ANYWHERE . IF PRAGMATIC IN SATA MEANS HE WILL FORCE THINGS ON THE PEOPLE THEN FORGET ABOUT DEVELOPMENT.
Lusaka ain’t seen nothing yet.Manila,Lagos,Mumbai,Cairo,Nairobi & Bangkok have some living under train bridges in garbage dumps.Yet you find a few there clean,neat in body & living quarters not always waiting for gov’t.You can be poor but clean and organised as quality of life is not always about how much you make.
I agree with the author. In fact, he is an example of the general lawlessness that has become endemic to our nation. His english is a crime in itself. There are so many errors in his article, I stopped reading half way through the article. Pull the log in your eye before pointing out the forest that is in the Zambian eye!
To suggest that poverty is due to lawlessness is backwards. It should be the other way around. Lawlessness is a result of poverty. If you want to fix poverty, quit relying on the west and other countries for handouts. I’ll give you an example: Salaula. If you go into Soweto, you will see a lot of it. Salaula is sent here from countries like the U.S. and Britain because of their excess. Because the clothes are second-hand, they come into the country at a cost that is cheaper that it would be to manufacture. Therefore, industry is not created. There are many more, where our reliance on outside countries for goods cripples this nation. Without economic infrastructure, we will never be able to afford paying our police a decent wage and lawlessness will continue to escalate.
This is a true picture of MMD cadres. In the light of a seemingly good debate, they introduce allegations on PF. people when shall you grow up? Who knows that the entire country suffers from lawlessness and who has been ruling this country for two decades now. Our debate must be focused on what us as individuals must do to avert this sort of crisis that criped in with “the hour has come”. @19. look at zim and tell me who is better off today as compared to Zed? The west will always depend on us as we depend on them. The recent econmic crisis has gone down without your efforts as africa being contributory? You have just waken up & recession is over. Its true also that selling salaula as you put it creates small scale businesse for our people as well as competiton for our locally made…