Bars and Night Clubs Owners Association of Zambia says it has received with shock the information that bars and night clubs will remain closed until the review of the announced new measures in the next 7 to14 days.
Association General Secretary Edmond Lifwekelo told Money FM News in an interview that the Association expected that government was going to look at the proposals which have been put across to them on how bars and night clubs are going to work within the confines of operating on a takeaway basis.
Mr Lifwekelo said its members across the country are quite disappointed because they are wondering what the difference is between a Casino and a bar because Casinos are more of bars than anything else.
“We received the information with shock because this is not what we expected as an association. We expected that government was supposed to look at the proposals which we have put across to them on how we are going to operate within the confines of operating on a takeaway basis,” Mr Lifwekelo said.
He added that the Association is are wondering why Zambians who are running genuine bars and night clubs have been told to stop while foreign nationals who own most of the Casinos have been allowed to operate.
“So what it is right now is we are wondering why Zambians who are running genuine bars and night clubs have been told to stop while foreigners (I will call them foreigners because it’s not even a secret that most of these Casinos are run by Chinese) have been allowed to operate.”
“These people chunk huge sums of money out of the country, so now we who plough back our profits into our national economy have been told to stop selling beer; I think it’s very unfortunate,” he lamented.