Kitwe City Council (KCC) was yesterday applying for a search warrant to conduct raids in various markets in the city where illegal sale of alcohol has continued undercover.
KCC acting public relations manager Dorothy Sampa confirmed that council officers were by yesterday at the Magistrate Court applying for the warrant.
The KCC few weeks ago banned the sale of alcohol in markets in the city but traders have defied the order to stop the illegal practice.
The council has also confiscated an assortment of lagers, spirits, ciders and Chibuku Shake Shake from traders at Chisokone, Bulangililo and Riverside market during the past week and on Wednesday.
Ms Sampa said in an interview yesterday that the Council would continue conducting random checks in markets to ensure that traders operated within the law.
She said some traders were locking their business premises during Council inspections and that it was not easy for the local authority to confiscate all alcohol illegally being sold in markets.
“That is why we want to obtain the search warrant so that we can also forcefully enter into premises suspected to be stocking alcohol. As I am speaking to you, we have council officers at the court who are making the necessary arrangements,” she said.
Ms Sampa the KCC was taking measures which were not expected as traders were advised to sale all alcohol in stock so that confiscation of the commodities could be avoided.
She said the KCC was doing everything possible to ensure that a confrontation between the local authority and the traders was avoided.
She said traders who will be apprehended by the KCC police would appear in court for abrogating the law and the KCC order for traders to stop selling alcohol in markets.
Some traders from Chisokone have vowed to continue with the illegal sale of alcohol at market places because they depended on the business to fend for their families.
“We are going to play hide and seek with the Council but for how long because some of us depend on this business of selling alcohol to feed our families and send children to school,” said Kelvin Mumbuna, a trader at Riverside market.
A Chisokone trader, Peter Changala, said it was not possible for KCC to complete stop the sale of alcohol in markets and hoped that an alternative place would be found from where to sale the alcohol.
These councils are busy running these raids but always fail to provide services they are mandated to provide, I live in Lusaka and our council doesn’t seem to think people occupy Soweto, Buseko or any other market in the city, they are mud ridden with no proper sanitation services, but they are very happy to seek out “law breakers”. Let’s demand our rights as well.
The same vigor should be directed towards ukukusa ifisoso(garbage collection) mu town,especially around shoprite parking lot,and kmb station.
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That’s all they ever do: confiscate, raid, destroy, close, break, lock-out, cease, stop, ban. Never heard them build, modernize, encourage, allocate, improve, pave, construct, dialogue, relocate.
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