Thursday, March 28, 2024

Police Orders Deployment of Police Officers to Markets and Bus Stations to stop Political Cadres activities

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Newly-appointed Inspector General of Police Lemmy Kajoba has directed Deputy Commissioners of Police in Provinces to ensure that they devise mechanisms aimed at averting the harassment of members of the public in some markets and bus stations by some suspected political cadres in all markets and bus stations under their charge.

In a statement released to the media, Mr. Kajoba said that he has observed with concern the continued reports of harassment of members of the public in some markets and bus stations by some suspected political cadres and has ordered the deployment of police officers to markets and bus stations as a proactive measure as one of the intervening measures.

Mr. Kajoba said that the deployment will enable Zambia Police to respond to people’s concerns without delay hence protecting traders from those cadres who are trying to resist change in the running of markets and bus stations.

“It has become a practice that whenever cadres notice the absence of police officers, they begin harassing the public and only escape the moment police officers are called in to restore order. We should not continue on that reactive route,” Mr Kajoba said.

Mr. Kajoba appealed to traders is that they should report individuals who are in a habit of harassing them to police officers who will be deployed and should always pay fees to officials from the local authorities and not cadres.

Earlier, People’s Alliance for Change President, Andyford Mayele Banda called on the Inspector General of Police, Remmy Kajoba to form a task force to resolve the crisis around cadres at bus stations and trading places.

Mr. Banda said the misconduct of cadres was one of the major reasons why the governments of UNIP, MMD, and PF fell.

There has been numerous reports of UPND cadres controlling markets and collecting money from traders.

27 COMMENTS

  1. Zambia Police (ZP) have no excuse if they fail to bring sanity in the Markets and Bus Stops. They are getting paid taxpayer’s money to do exactly that job.

    The New Dawn Administration (NDA) has clearly and unequivocally stated that it does not condone cadre criminality in the aforementioned business places. The NDA has shown political will to address “cadrerism”. Therefore, ZP can capitalize on this political will and government support to root out that vice from our markets and bus stops. Please ZP help us by providing security to hardworking Zambians who are eager to take advantage of the business enabling environment that the NDA has ushered in.

    We are in this thing together. The success of the NDA will be for the benefit of the nation.

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  2. As they deploy to the markets, the crooks will now invade the townships. The problem is deep rooted and it cannot be solved by simply saying abracadabra.

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  3. Although State Police is being involved in this matter, this is purely the responsibility of local authorities. The councils must move in and enforce the Law. Those old enough will remember Sata’s Police Officers when he served as Governor at LCC. Those council police officers were serious, they would catch vendors and vagabonds from the CBD, load them in FAP trucks and take them as far as Chisamba and dump them as punishment. Let’s not misuse ZP officers, let local authorities take charge. Unfortunately information available is that some rogue council officers work with these cadres and vendors and they benefit from the illegal levies. Instead of the wholesale forced leave of DCs Bally must guide councils to fulfill their mandate

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  4. Corruption scandals: 48 Houses Social Security Cash Luxury Presidential Jet Ambulances Fire Trucks Mukula Trees Ndola-Lusaka Rd Malawi Maizegate Fuelgate Swaziland landgate Zesco Loans Honeybee Corruption scandals: 48 Houses Social Security Cash Luxury Presidential Jet Ambulances Fire Trucks Mukula Trees Ndola-Lusaka Rd Malawi Maizegate Fuelgate Swaziland landgate Zesco Loans Honeybee

    Arrest the criminals… you know them and everyone knows them. Mere lip service is not the change people voted for. Id UPND are really serious, they would instruct their party officials at provincial and district level to either demote these cadres or get them arrested.
    But also ensure that while the cops are in the markets and bus stops, they themselves don’t turn into criminal gangs and get bribes like the traffic cops. Zambia is a failed State and it will take more than more words to really effect meaningful Change.

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  5. Please IG reintroduce the beat system in towns, cities, townships, markets, and streets also place traffic officers strategically to ensure traffic laws are enforced….place them on the highways…on slip roads…and those cutting in when everyone is driving orderly take the power back to the police…station mobile central command centres….and tell your men no corruption….start working

  6. Let people start taking pictures and videos of these “suspected cadres” on their phones. See how long they continue from there. Police officers asking for bribes or otherwise harassing the public should also be recorded! Zero tolerance for corruption is everyone’s job – not just the President’s.

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  7. The caders, especially purporting to be UPND are at fault and should not be tolerated. The public are at fault by tolerating these caders. As a marketeer operating a stand, what is the worst that will happen if I refuse to pay a cader well knowing that I have the full support of the police and local government? The police finally should step-up to enforce their mandate. With these multiple points of failure/success, I really fail to see why the vice of the caders intimidating people in stations and markets should continue!

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  8. I can never understand how with so many smart phones that people have in Zambia, there is very little video or audio evidence of any wrong doing. But people are so quick to show the world their puckered lips or bombassa butts every minute. The new government must change the law to have audio and video evidence admissible in court. FURTHERMORE, Zambia Police must introduce personal webcams for each officer in public. These are not expensive and are much cheaper than the CCTVs. We are not in the stone age.

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  9. Rummy is a coward. Why is he saying suspected cadres instead of mentioning upnd.

    The only cadres who can harass people are upnd cadres.

    He has started working for HH instead of working for people.

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  10. Should the cadre problem be a problem for citizens? I think not. As Political party operatives, cadres should revert to being ordinary citizens in non campaigning times, or be confined to party offices. They certainly, should not still be in campaign mode, and seeking to impose their unlawful will on citizens. People should not have to deal or even put up with cadres. This is a problem created by political parties – they, themselves, should sort it out – not the Police. Don’t create problems and leave them for Police to clean up!

  11. Cadreship is the quickest job to find as a political activist, as long as their party is in control of the government and cadres have no jobs this problem will not go away .
    These un employed youths are very intelligent they manipulate everything in the end they create their jobs without bothering their president.
    The president may speak but they understand him much better than anyone could know, speaking and action are two things in fact they are just defending themselves from hunger and poverty, they have to defend themselves at all costs.

  12. 1. All past president, dead or alive let down the nation. This Opaque Legalisation of the Cadre Culture was nothing but Terrorist Acts. All previous governments were sending a bunch of hooligans to harass hard working mothers, who wanted to earn a living selling on markets, so that they can feed families. Cadres ruled in the name of Party-Political Broadcast. Bus drivers had to succumb to daily tipping to these thugs, to stay on roads.

    I posted on Lusakatimes about the need to ban these barbaric cadre cultures in both MMD & PF Regimes and got attacked by insults coming people who have very small minds.

    Cont…

  13. 1. All past president, dead or alive let down the nation. This Opaque Legalisation of the Cadre Culture was nothing but Terrorist Acts. All previous governments were sending a bunch of hooligans to harass hard working mothers, who wanted to earn a living selling on markets, so that they can feed families. Cadres ruled in the name of Party-Political Broadcast. Bus drivers had to succumb to daily tipping to these thugs, to stay on roads.

    I posted on Lusakatimes about the need to ban these barbaric cadre cultures in both MMD & PF Regimes and got attacked by insults coming people who have very small minds.

  14. 2. Moving forward, UPND should design programs, training incentives to ensure these youth have a different way of thinking about their future. That said it boils down to individual choices, decisions and motivation that has to be cultivated by each cadre/person. Because where you direct your energy and thought process, you manifest reality and make your aspirations and dream come true.

    WE BECOME WHAT WE HABITUALLY THINK ABOUT. THIS IS WHAT SEPERATES SUCCESS & FAILURE.

  15. THE SAINT @ 10

    Indeed a good forward thinking from you. Police Personal Web Cams in present times are cheap to buy, especially from China.

    But the hard task is the BackOffice Technology that sustains the cameras. You need Powerful Servers and Fast Network Bandwidth to stream live video clips into Repository & Backup for all Police Recordings. Zambia does not have powerful Internet & Network Bandwidth. Let’s not forget that our National Grid that these Server would need to run 24/7 are lovers of load-shedding. We have Fibre Optic Network but still failing to capitalise on the use of it. We still have police stations that file everything of paper and not in computers. Reason why police statement are always missing before appealing for court cases.

  16. INDEPENDENT OBSERVER, you are so right that any technology driven initiative in Zambia for the public service will not work due to the basic such as unreliable power supply and lack of broadband connectivity. I have little confidence that even the commonly available CCTV are achieving much now if they rely on internet connections. Another bottle neck is basic IT skills. I imagine that even if computers and printers a rolled out in an public service points, the highest resistance will be from both the frontline and back office staff who will struggle with operating the devices. Hopefully the Covid pandemic which forced many tertiary educations to adopt online learning and digital tools some extent will have hoped with fast-tracking the adoption of technologies and maybe the next generation…

  17. And what about the persistent harassment of motorists by the police themselves through endless and needless road blocks? Where is our freedom of movement?

  18. Just recruit the mambalas into the army or ZNS so that they can learn some life skills. Deploy them to Afghanistan, that will teach them.

  19. And don’t forget that HH promised them Jobs and the youths now have come to realize that it was just Political campaigns…ZERO jobs will be created under HH…….kikikikikiki Forward Forwarded and he is now wearing surgical gloves…can someone please advise HH that he looks like a crown wearing surgical gloves…plus it’s not hygienic to be walking around all day with your surgical gloves on…..he is spreading a lot of bacteria

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  20. Dont Jail them, but take them to ZNS. How do You cut out their livelily wood without offering the alternative means of survival or else you are just creating dangerous criminals (The Police Service wont have the capacity to handle). 1 Samuel 22:2 ” All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.” so be careful how you handle the discontented people

  21. The police chief should not just deploy officers on bus stations and markets but even streets where there is a lot of disorderly conduct by mini bus drivers and pirates. Lumumba road, Mumbwa Road and Freedom way from Kulima tower to Autoworld needs presence of para from morning to about 20hrs, There is a lot of unnecessary confusion and give bad impression to a visitor who may think this country has no laws. Markets, Bus stations and roads go in hand.

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