Police warn bar, night club owners

BAR and night club owners who will defy Government directive to close and only sell on a take-away basis will be dealt with sternly, the police has warned.

Police spokesperson, Esther Katongo dared the bar and night club owners to go ahead with their plan if they wanted to know what the police were capable of.

This follows an announcement by the bar and night club owners that they had resolved to defy Government directive to close and only sell on a take-away basis.

“They will be dealt with sternly. Let them go ahead if they want, we will be dealing with them one by one and not as an association,” Ms Katongo warned.

They agreed during a meeting to continue with normal operations of selling from 18:00 to 22:00 hours from Fridays to Sundays.

Bars and Night Club Owners Association president, Peter Mwale, said that members across the country agreed to ignore the government directive because it would cripple their businesses.

Mr Mwale said there was no way bars and night clubs could close their source of

income and that they would continue with earlier stipulated operation hours from 18:00 to 22:00 from Fridays to Sundays.

“Following a meeting with members across the country, we resolved to ignore the directive by Government for bars, night clubs and taverns to operate on takeaway basis,” Mr Mwale said.

Government on Monday announced the closure of bars, taverns, nightclubs and casinos for 14 days and indicated that these places will only operate on take-away basis.

It expressed displeasure that bars and night club owners continued flouting Covid-19 preventive measures.