Thursday, March 28, 2024

CCPC, South local authorities seized expired Food from Markets

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Southern Province CCPC Investigator, Chipapa Matyola loading seized expired drinks from some shop at Sinazeze Market in Sinazongwe District.- Picture by Hanford Chaaba.)
Southern Province CCPC Investigator, Chipapa Matyola loading seized expired drinks from some shop at Sinazeze Market in Sinazongwe District.- Picture by Hanford Chaaba

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and the local authorities in Kalomo, Choma, Namwala and Sinazongwe districts in Southern Province have seized various products worthy over K5,000.

K1,041 worth of items were seized from Kalomo Market, K1,265 from Choma while K1,990 as well as K720 worth of products were seized from Sinazeze in Sinazongwe and Namwala district markets respectively.

The seized items mainly included expired cases of assorted fizzy drinks, juices and sanitary pads as well as cosmetics and various cases of toilet tissue that was labelled in foreign language.

As CCPC we are of the view that total consumer protection can neither be achieved single-handedly by the CCPC nor the government, but requires concerted efforts from various stakeholders such as traditional leadership, institutions of learning and members of the public.

The issue of consumer protection need to be given the importance they deserve as most of them border on people’s health. As such we would like to urge people of Southern Province to be careful when buying and consuming food products.

Therefore, consumers not only in Southern Province but countrywide need to be proactive and report perpetrators of both anti-competitive business and unfair trading practices to the CCPC.

And Southern Province permanent Secretary, Sibanze Simuchoba has urged the business community in the province to desist from engaging in anti-competitive and unfair trading practices.

Mr Simuchoba said both anti-competitive and unfair conducts on the market had the potential to erode consumer welfare in the country.

The Permanent Secretary said this when the CCPC Officers, Hanford Chaaba and Matyola Chipapa paid a courtesy call at his office during the sensitisation tour of the province.

Mr Simuchoba said it was imperative that traders adhered to the Competition and Consumer Protection Act and other pieces of legislation that are aimed at perfecting the market, adding that businesses needed to strive to achieve optimal consumer satisfaction and protection.

He described the competition and consumer protection law as one that is meant to benefit members of the general public.

Mr Simuchoba said Zambia has numerous pieces of legislation aimed at benefiting members of the public in both rural and urban areas, and commended the CCPC for the initiative to bring the competition and consumer protection law to the members of the public in Southern Province.

He thanked the CCPC for what he referred to as a noble mandate and challenged other consumer protection bodies and regulatory agencies to emulate the CCPC by not only restricting their services to areas along the line of rail, but also consider extending them to the remotest rural areas in the country.

The Permanent Secretary urged the CCPC to ensure that businesses are made to account for their trade conducts and challenged consumers to raise to the occasion and demand better justice.

1 COMMENT

  1. Good move CCPC to save people’s lives. Also confiscate all those religious labeled goods to avoid initiating innocent souls into unwanted cults. But why doing it in UPND strongholds alone, this is what causes Mr. Charles Kakoma to complain?

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