Street vendors return to Lusaka city centre

Street vendors return to Lusaka city centre
By Patson Chilemba
Monday April 09, 2007 [04:00]

STREET vendors have gone back to the streets of Lusaka city centre barely two weeks after the Lusaka City Council (LCC) removed them. The makeshift stalls and phone booths that were removed have found their way back into the city centre with seemingly very little interruption from the local authority. Last week whilst demolishing makeshift stores at Cha Cha Cha Market, LCC police commandant Winfred Mwale vowed that that was the last society was seeing of street vending.

But a vendor who was found erecting his makeshift stall that was demolished, said the only place he could conduct business from was the Lusaka City centre. John Chibangu said LCC and government were just wasting their time because as far as he was concerned no one was capable of putting an end to street vending. “They will remove and remove until they remove no more. I would urge them to spend their energies on some other things because as far as we are concerned, they have lost this battle,” he said. Another vendor Maureen Saileti said she had resorted to trading on the streets because there were no spaces in the markets the city council had proposed.

The vendors went about their business despite the presence of a council police officer a few metres away. But when contacted for comment, Mwale said LCC had tried to handle the issue in a non-confrontational manner and that force was the only option left. “We have to flash out those who have refused, we cannot continue with diplomacy. We are going to arrest them, bundle them up and take them to court. The minor sentence if they fail to pay a fine is three months imprisonment,” said Mwale.

LCC town clerk Timothy Hakuyu said the council would revive the fast track court so that if anyone was caught engaging in street vending they would straight away go to court. Hakuyu complained that state police had not been very helpful in terms of ensuring that street vendors were stopped from going back to the streets. “Those that are erecting the structures we shall go back again and demolish them. Police don’t want to help us because they always say that we are committed,” Hakuyu said. “We shall revive the fast track court where when we arrest them they get to court immediately so that they know that we are serious.”