The Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA), the Road Development Agency (RDA) and the Lusaka City Council (LCC) have embarked on an exercise to remove all billboards that obstruct the road.
On Thursday, the three agencies razed down billboards on Great East Road and Addis Ababa Drive that were obstructing road users.
RTSA Chief Executive Officer Zindaba Soko told Journalists that the agencies were acting on complaints from members of the public.
Mr Soko said the billboards must be at least 2 metres high off the ground so as to give the motorists and pedestrians a good view of the road.
He regretted that most billboards have been mounted less than a metre off the ground thereby being hazardous to the road users by way of obstruction.
At last the dull Soko has done something meaningful. The billboards that Indians are putting up in Lusaka are too low, they are a hazard and are making the city ugly, you can’t have billboards everywhere.
i know the job done by RTSA of removing these billboards is commendable.
My only problem is why was this approved in the first place. Also why should RTSA be the ones to remove these billboards instead of the owners who put them there. Now RTSA is spending money to fix these which were supposed instead.
The question is, who in the Lusaka City Council authorised Primedia to erect Billboards which were not to the required standard? Now its costing RATSA, RDA and LCC Taxpayers money to remove them. Surely whoever (LCC) is tasked with approving erecting of Billboards should be taken to task for this. ACC this is a straight forward case to investigate.
When no one takes responsibility nothing changes…its like trying remove weeds by cutting them with a scissor!!
In the first place who approved them? When did they learn they were dangerous?
Creating problems and latter draw programs to fix them. No wonder we are moving in circles and can’t break the poverty cycle. Typical of current leadership and cronies
Billionaire Mo Ibrahim was right when he said the difference between Zurich, Frankfurt and Lilongwe or Lusaka is Governance and Leadership…the evidence is here for all to see!!
OK! JOB CREATION, EH! IT WORKS TO CREATE A MISTAKE AND EMPLOY PEOPLE TO CORRECT IT. THAT’S INGENIOUS. BUT HEY! THESE WEREN’T ERECTED IN PF ERA. THEY STARTED IN MMD UNDER THE LATE LEVY MWANAWASA THE LAWYER.
BUT WHY DIDN’T THEY USE A DIGGER AND A LORRY WITH A CRANE FOR LOADING THOSE BILLBOARDS? BECAUSE, AS I CAN OBSERVE THERE’S A MASSIVE BREACH OF HEALTH AND SAFETY RULES. THAT THING CAN FALL ON SOMEONE’S LEG. OK THEY COULDN’T HAVE DONE IT BECAUSE IT WAS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE COUNCIL TO CREATE JOBS. AGREED.
The challenge is that every agency apply the law according to its act of its formation and interpret policy differently from other agencies. When it comes to specifics of policy, all policies that needs inter-agency cooperation I feel they should use uniform standard(s). Yes billboards might cause obstruction but is RSTA just pulling them down just because of what they can cause or they have enough evidence supporting their particular action? Or does RTSA in a way just want to take over issuance of billboard spots? There may be corruption at the local government but that is the authority doing the job, if another agency has an issue with the billboards the first stop is to check with the local authority. In short the two road safety engineers from the two agencies should find a way to…
Oh no! these agencies were together already, the problem might then be issuance, construction buy the owners and non-monitoring by the authorities (capacity of course).
In Zambia zero-tolerance is a mirage. We always wait for breakpoint. It would be interesting to know which final member of the public eventually triggered action. Soon another nuisance of those lit up adverts will populate the city-scape…until members of the public ask that bylaws begin to work again…
@ (dull racist) MWENSE
Which Indians are these that are putting up billboards? Could you please understand the difference between advertising company and advertiser!
It was wrong in the first instance for the authorities to allow some bogus advertising agency to erect these light boxes.I hope they will move to Kafue road as well were these eye sores are rampant.Secondly,the cost of removing these billboards should be passed on to the advertising agency as a deterrent against such stupidity in future.I hope LCC,RTSA & RDA have consulted extensively with their legal teams and they have a watertight legal defence in the event that the culprits run to our corrupt courts.