Minister of Local Government says consultations regarding the reopening of bars and night clubs have been concluded and recommendations have already been submitted to President Edgar Lungu.
Speaking to the Media, Dr. Charles Banda said the Ministry has consulted all stakeholders who include the Bars and Night Clubs owners Association of Zambia and liquor manufacturers.
Dr. Banda stated that a Ministerial consultative meeting was held a few days ago, and took on board all the recommendations made by the Permanent Secretaries’ council, from individual ministries into a consolidated approach towards the matter.
“You may recall that the last time his Excellency the President spoke to the nation, he did task some Ministries to do some consultations so that after those consultations, decisions should be made on the way forward in far as reopening of the bars is concerned.”
“I would like to inform the nation through you colleagues that consultations have been done very widely, we have consulted stakeholders which include the Bar owners Association, we have spoken to liquor manufacturers, and everybody else. We have come up with recommendations very exhaustive indeed, which so far we have already presented to his Excellency the President who will be addressing the nation shortly,” Dr. Banda said.
He expressed optimism that the Republican President will be addressing the nation very soon and that the reopening of bars and night clubs is one of the issues to be addressed.
‘I want to believe that within this week, his Excellency the President may address the nation and we believe that one of the issues he will discuss will be the reopening of bars and consultations.”
“We believe that what we have done will go a long way in us making progress towards normalizing business in all sectors in the country,” he stated.
Dr. Banda urged Bars and Night Clubs owners Association of Zambia who have called on their members to open with or without government pronouncement, to bear with government and wait for the Presidential directive.
Dr. Banda has however refuted claims that government has prioritized foreign businesses at the expense of local ones saying the law does not segregate.
Meanwhile, Bars and Night Clubs Owners Association of Zambia General Secretary Edmond Lifwekelo told Money FM News in an interview that what has necessitated the reopening of bars without waiting for government’s approval is the unfair application of the law and hunger among its members.
“What has necessitated us to open is hunger of course, our members are dying of hunger so it’s a situation of unfair application of the law, we are seeing bars and clubs of run by foreign nationals operating in full view of authorities and they are patronizing these places so why shouldn’t our members open?”
“I’m glad that most of our members countrywide have heeded our advice to have their business premises open and they opened on Saturday, and so far so good we are monitoring the situation on the ground,” Mr. Lifwekelo said.