The Zambia Police Service has advised Members of the Public to verify with authorities on the legality of checkpoints and roadblocks before effecting citizen arrests on Police officers suspected to have mounted an illegal checkpoint as directed by Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo yesterday.
At a media briefing, Mr. Lusambo told Lusaka residents to effect Citizen arrest on Police Officers who mount illegal roadblocks saying Lusaka only has three Check Points, one along Mumbwa road, one along the Kafue road in Chilanga and one along the Great East road after the Airport roundabout.
He said the unnecessary road blocks in the Province were contributing to congestion on the roads.
Here is a full statement by the Police
LUSAKA, 07 TH OCTOBER, 2018 – The Zambia Police wishes to state that in the recent past, a Ministerial Statement was presented in Parliament by the Minister of Home Affairs, in which he announced the reduction of roadblocks countrywide.
We also wish to clarify that the roadblocks that were referred to in the Ministerial Statement were Permanent Security road blocks and these are roadblocks which operate on a 24 00 hours basis mainly for security reasons such as search for wanted and trafficked persons, stolen property and address many other security concerns.
Other than these permanent roadblocks there are also snap check points which are random in nature and are mounted by traffic officers at different points in enforcing the Road Traffic Act hence ensuring that there is sanity on the roads.
The snap checks are usually mounted between 09 00 hours and 16 00 hours. Before 09 00 hours and after 17 00 hours, traffic officers are usually involved in traffic management.
The permanent roadblocks were indeed reduced on the basis that they were counterproductive and were an inconvenience to the travelling public.
However, on snap checks which are random checkpoints, a directive was given by the Minister of Home Affairs that they should be well coordinated by Police Commissioners of Provinces to avoid being an inconvenience to the travelling public.
Section 21 of the Zambia Police Act gives mandate to the Zambia Police to regulate and control traffic as well as keep and maintain order on public roads.
We therefore wish to advise members of the public to understand the distinction between Permanent Security Roadblocks and Snap Traffic checks and should always verify with authorities on the legality of checkpoints and roadblocks before effecting citizens arrests on officers suspected to have mounted an illegal checkpoint.
ESTHER MWAATA KATONGO
ZAMBIA POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
Chaos at its best. So what contact numbers will the public use to verify the authenticity of the road blocks? It is like advising a victim of robbery to first of all find out from another robber whether the robber at your home is indeed a robber before one takes action to defend himself or his property
Be careful Lusambo…these cops will rise against you, remember roadblocks are their livelihood. You need to handle them with care
WHAT KATONGO IS TELLING LUSAMBO IS :
LEAVE OUR ATMs ALONE. YOU MINISTERS HAVE YOUR MANY ALLOWANCES WE SHALL HAVE OUR SNAP CHECK POINTS.
TIFUNA KUDYA NAISE !
AWAITING COMMENTS FROM THE IG.
MEANWHILE IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL.
There is your PF administration. Total chaos. Total breakdown of the system. And you have to remember that Lungu is the chief executive officer of the Executive branch of government, and the police force falls under his branch. But most likely he doesn’t even know that. PF has just won the worst administration in the history of Zambia prize. Congratulations clueless Lungu. Congratulations clueless PF. Shame on all of you.
ZP, zambwino palibe! instead of creating a special task force within the police force to curb corruption and lawlessness within the establishment, the best ZP can come with is call them first to verify? Ushe why do these people even bother to go to school? ZP there are better ways to raise revenue for the police force by targetting criminals not innocent people.
Well done Hon. Lusambo!
Clean out this corruption.
Good thing you are the only one with the balls to do it!
This shows how disorganized our systems are. Ba Esther u mean BL doesn’t know that? In any case, y not write BL n advise him? Again Mr minister u can do better than wat u’r advocating 4. Devise a better system than this.
Why not give names of gazzetted roads for the same snap check road blocks? Why should cops mount road checks in resdential hidden roads? We need order and sanity. Ati call to verify,on wich number? This is a joks
You dont run a govt system like bus stop or market
This boy is overzealous
And you see taxi drivers and bus drivers with smart phones posting in support this chap
Yaba lusambo now i have you figured out.i was happy to be hearing your name ati you re moving from ministry to ministry. Especially harassing the police. Kanshi the real reason you re doing this is coz u re doing it for the Chinese to be in their good books shame on you. You have given chinese impression that you re untouchable see how people jump when i say or do thing’s hence more money in your pockets from the chinese. You re one of the top 5 when it comes to corruption. Infact we are not going to let u allocate a special piece of land or area for the chinese. Stop lying to them it wont happen. Leave the police alone. They are 10 times better than you
We MUST first arrest them then verify later. Have you given us a Police tool free line for these verification?. these snap check points a a source of corruption and an inconvenience
I meant a toll free line
It’s time the police are put in there rightful place. They are just way out of line. How do they make two or more road blocks on the same high way. It’s purely business now for the police. It’s not a service any more.
To beat the directive of the Minister of Home affairs against road blocks, Traffic Police in Ndola and Kitwe just walk in traffic lanes in congestion and pluck out cars like mangoes.
The classis one was the Kitwe speed trap guys on the Kitwe Ndola dual road during school opening days. There was neither a Saturday nor a sunday and the people used to call the sunday speed traps as the school fees speed traps.
For once Lusambo is right. the rebuttal from Esther Katanga doesn’t make sense. We don’t need the permanent road blocks, as if there is a civil war in the country. Zambia has always been a peaceful nation. Spot checks once in a while would suffice. Zambia Police has enough traffic patrol vehicles now; and, foolishly, they are clearly labelled. So we see them and know that they are many! Instead of patrolling the roads they are used to transport bandits with their speed cameras enabling them to waylay you where Zwangendaba’s speed limits are ridiculously low.
Mwebantu who’s ministry does ZP for under and were is the Minister? It seems to me Bowman is overstepping his authority here.
Are a policeman using grz time blogging? Kampyongo has failed to control his wild boas so Lusambo comes in to show him how it’s done.
Ba buzyu as we call them its just too much of stealing people’s money. Honestly even Government knows that these so called cops are just criminals in uniform. How much money do they remit to Government after mounting these road blocks? Police are supposed to working more pro-actively to prevent crimes before they are committed day and night.
The sad thing is when its night time, a time perfect for criminals to cause havoc on communities, these same cops also go to sleep, then why are they there? To a professional police force, every citizen must feel protected especially at night and criminals must have it rough just at the thought of them, but this aint the case now.
Minister Lusambo is very correct and must be supported on this issue by all citizens, we need sanity in the police…
Malinso you’re right. Lusambo wants to clean up his province of corruption and it doesn’t matter whether Kampyongo is happy or not. It’s a waste of time to follow what this woman wants us to do.
Hon Lusambo, thank you for all your efforts trying to put things right,but please I feel you are overstepping your boundaries, remember that we have only one Home Affairs minister in the name of Steven Kampyongo, why do you want to to undermine? Awe ba Lusambo mwabutukisha, respect your friends office. Any statement under home affairs can only be credible if it is issued by the Home Affairs minister. Please don’t undermine your fellow ministers.
I can see a showdown looming between lusambo and kampyongo. At least there will be some entertainment for the public instead of the usual depressing news of rising costs everyday.
These so called Snap Checks as someone is putting it, are they to a daily occurrence and that specific times like towards lunch just before knock off?
Hmm bane??
One of the sure ways to know these Snap checks: ask for their name, man number and police post one is from? And see what drama will unfold before your eyes…
Thanks BL.
ZP, twalishiba utuntu…
The term “road block” messes up the whole intention of such intervention. The checks by Police are necessary otherwise there will be so many unworthy vehicles on the roads. Time and again I have been asked by some motorists whether there is a police “road block” ahead and if Yes, the vehicle would U-turn. Go to Great north road and see for yourselves how many unlicensed vehicles carry blocks and sand but use what they call ZALEWA to avoid the road worthy check points. I am in support of the so called road blocks but not for the idea of paying the officers money that ends up into their pockets because this does not remove the defective vehicle from the roads and hence continues posing that danger to other road users. Police can also check from their records and summon the vehicles that…