SUN REPORTER writes
@SunZambian
CHONGWE District Council has been accused of failing to clamp down on some guest houses that have been freely operating as brothels.
Council public relations officer Musonda Mino confirmed the local authority has received complaints about a particular guest house operating as a brothel.
“When we conduct inspections, our interest is about whether the guesthouse is meeting the terms of the licence as a guest house,” said Mr Mino.
“We know exactly what is happening and we will act when the time comes. We will invite you to witness,” he assured.
Joe Kabalata, a resident of Chongwe’s Ibex area, earlier told The Sun that the local authority had failed to stop the prostitution activities openly taking place in the town because some people at the council were getting kickbacks from the vice.
“The inspectors told the media to remain outside the last time they carried out an inspection at this particular guest house. It’s like they knew exactly what goes on in there,” charged Mr Kabalata.
But Mr Mino said the local authority was not aware of any of its employees benefiting from the brothel activities at the guest house.
“We would be interested to investigate those allegations further,” Mino stated.
A check by The Sun at the guest house on the Great East Road yesterday,
found some of the rooms had been rented out to women in pairs, most of whom were found lying down on their beds in skimpy clothing with the doors to their rooms ajar.
Some of the women also beckoned at Sun reporters, as they walked along the corridor, to enter their rooms where, in some cases, packets of condoms were displayed on side tables.
A woman in one of the rooms, said she was ready to offer live sex to those interested
A worker at the guest house told the Sun that some women were from far places like Malawi and Zimbabwe and had booked the rooms on a long term basis paid from their sex trade.
Peter Malisawa, who runs a cement trading outlet nearby, said that the guesthouse “gets very busy at night” when it is awash with men, some of them from as far as Lusaka’.
“Most men would pretend they are coming to drink from the outside bar when in fact they were coming for cheap services from prostitutes,” he said.
