ZRST acts to reduce accidents in Lusaka
By KALOBWE BWALYA THE Zambia Weights and Measures Agency (ZWMA) has urged retailers to be vigilant when receiving goods from suppliers as some goods may be underweight.
ZWMA public relations officer Mutale Chileshe said it was a requirement for traders or retailers to ensure a scale was available for use by customers who wished to weigh goods before buying.
Mr Chileshe disclosed that a team of inspectors from the agency on Wednesday seized 69 packets of underweight salt from a retail outlet in Lusaka.
He said inspectors sampled over 150 packets of salt of which 69 packets of one (1) kg and two (2) kg salt were seized because they were ‘critically short of the tolerable limits’.
“Some salt packets were weighing over twice the tolerable deficiency of 1.5 percent that is over 30g and 60g less respectively for the one (1) kg and two (2) kg packets.
The seized salt was immediately taken to the courts of law for legal disposal.
The rest of the products were quarantined not to be sold until corrective measures were undertaken.
“While the retailers put the blame on the supplier, the agency advised the retailer to be vigilant when receiving goods from suppliers and must check them before putting on the shelf,” said Mr Chileshe.
And Mr Chileshe said, according to the agency’s regulations, retailers had an obligation to avail customers a type-approved and verified scale to weigh goods before buying them.
He said following the results of the inspection, the manufacturer and retailer had since been summoned to ZWWA for a hearing where corrective measures would communicated to the duo.
Mr Chileshe appealed to Zambian manufacturers and suppliers to take weights and measures regulations seriously as it was illegal to sell or offer for sale products below the declared quantities. By CHITE MTONGA THE Zambia Road Safety Trust (ZRST) and its cooperating partners have launched the first school zone road initiative at Vera Chiluba primary school in Lusaka.
And Ministry of Transport and Communication Minister Brian Mushimbe has praised the (ZRST) for implementing the initiative.
In a speech read for him by Ministry of Transport and communications deputy director John Chiluwe, Mr. Mushimbe said that the school Zone road initiative would reduce the number of road traffic accidents involving school going children.
He said that infrastructure that would protect children from road accidents when crossing roads was very important to government as they were too many road accidents.
“We welcome this initiative and as some of us here might be aware we have too many road accidents for a country of only 15 million people, and we cannot afford to lose young lives because our country’s development depends on these young pupils you are seeing here,” Mr. Mushimbe said.
He said that Government would support programmes that were intended to reduce road accidents in Zambia as it was depriving the country of the much needed human resource.
Mr. Mushimbe said that government was in the process of putting in place road policy to amend the night driving Act to improve road traffic and safety in Zambia.
Meanwhile ZRST chairman Mr. Daniel Mwamba said that his organisation was committed to safeguarding children’s lives.
Mr. Mwamba explained that Vera Chiluba primary school was just the first project among the many projects that were scheduled to be done in the country.
He said that road safety had a huge role to play in preserving the lives of