street vendors from Mosi-oa-tunya road in Livingstone on Friday to
promote cleanliness in the city ahead of the August 2013 UNWTO
conference
MOSI-OA-TUNYA Road, which is the main street in Livingstone, is currently clear and looking clean following Tourism and Arts Minister Sylvia Masebo’s action last Friday to remove the vendors.
The town centre component of the street, which was previously overcrowded with different types of street vendors, currently has free space for people to freely move from one place to another.
By yesterday (Sunday), the street was still without vendors and it looked clean unlike the previous situation.
On Friday last week, Ms Masebo accompanied by officials from her Ministry as well as the Livingstone City Council and Zambia Police Service removed vendors from Mosi-oa-tunya Road and assured them of continued Government support to continue trading elsewhere.
About 146 vendors have since been relocated to Green Market opposed the former Provincial Administration Block for Southern Province.
A Livingstone resident Malvin Chitiyo said the removal of vendors was timely and long overdue as the street was becoming very dirty on daily basis.
Mr Chitiyo, who was one of the youths who helped Ms Masebo and her delegation to get of vendors, said Livingstone was Zambia’s tourist capital and it was therefore important that the city was kept clean at all time.
“If any vendor feels offended from this operation, it means such a person is dirty even where he or she comes from.
I am strongly in support of this operation which we have been waiting for a long time. This is a tourist capital and we must keep the city clean. Vendors were making the city dirty and it is clean now,” Mr Chitiyo said.
He said the nearby Victoria Falls Town in Zimbabwe was regarded cleaner than Livingstone City in Zambia because vendors were not allowed to overcrowd the street.
Mr Chitiyo urged Livingstone residents to be focussed and change their mindset so that they begin embracing cleanliness.
Some tourists from Netherlands, who were witnessed the removing of vendors from Mosi-oa-tunya Road on Friday afternoon, praised Ms Masebo and the Government for the action taken.
They said the safety of tourists and other visitors was currently guaranteed as they would move in the street freely.
United Street Vendors Foundation (USVF) Southern Region chairperson Patrick Mubanga said the removal of vendors was welcome and long-overdue.
Mr Mubanga however asked the Government to allow vendors to operate in other streets away from Mosi-oatunya Road as well as at Green Market as toilets were still being constructed at the designated trading centre.
And Ms Masebo asked vendors to put themselves into groups depending on the type of the business they were engaged in and come up with business ideas so that Government could assist them.
Addressing the vendors at Livingstone City Council on Friday afternoon, Ms Masebo said the Government had a tourism fund to empower citizens including vendors interested to invest in tourism.
“We must start trading in an orderly and proper manner instead of cooking food in the streets where there are no toilets.
We had to remove you immediately because we don’t have enough time before the UNWTO General Conference as we only have 90 days before the event. Inspectors from UNWTO headquarters will be coming here this month to check we and we may lose the opportunity to host this big event if you overcrowding the city and raising security concerns,” she said.
Ms Masebo asked the police to enforce the law and ensure that vendors did not return to the streets after their removal.
Move into other towns as well at once and put a stop to this lawlessness. Start by heavily punishing people who buy from these vendors we see if they will still continue to come on the streets. Make a target of arresting at least 50 buyers pay week especially those who look like they have jobs, lock them up for 3 months each they so that they lose their jobs.
Ah AH you guys what goes on in your heads to come up with such comments? awe naseka sana
I meant 500 buyers per week. If I were a Lusaka town clerk, to start with, I would buy ba kanyangu video cameras for provide video evidence in court. Seems stnpid but its used even in the civilized world. COMMON SENSE.
Serious double standards. You remove street vendors from Livingstone but overlook the ones in Lusaka. It is a good move but consistency is vital in all matters
This is quite cosmetic. I am sure as soon as the conference is over the regulation will be ignored. It is the Zambian spirit!
It’s a tough one… It is people’s incomes but on the other hand no taxes are paid and it makes our towns ands cities dirty and look terrible!
Ba PF bafikofye……under Levy and RB our streets were clean and there was order
The council built markets for these traders but they had abandoned them leaving empty stands for the streets. If all of them went back, even customers will follow them.
I hear the street vendors agreed because they were told that after the UNWTO they will freely return to the street so that life continues as normal.
Imagine how clean the whole country might look (and how freely traffic in town might flow) if government had enough spine to remove vendors from all of our streets!
Safe for tourists? Sure, that’s great!
But how about safe for the rest of us?
I won’t make an impact unless we apply the same rules of not allowing street vending in towns,as opposed to the designated market areas.so please PF just pass a law prohibiting trading on streets in all towns.Only then will we see seriousness.Look at Kitwe’s Nakadoli market, why spend so much money on it and letting it turn into a white elephant.
HOPE THEY DON’T COME BACK AFTER THE UNWTO AND DURING YOUR CAMPAIGNS??? STICK TO YOUR MOVE. STREET VENDORS ARE A MESS IN A SOCIETY. LET PEOPLE USE MARKETS / DEDICATED ARES.
Let these people trade from markets or designated areas and never come back to streets period! And this should be countrywide not only L/stone.
This has to be permanent. In other town do the same. There are too many empty stands in markets for these vendors to occupy.
Great move Madam Masebo! But boy don’t we all need to see our lovely capital city Lusaka also clean and free of street vendors? Please wave your magic wand on Lusaka, and make it become the garden city we knew decades aga.
this good cause should also without any delay be extended to all towns and cities throughoutts the country ukwa is sleeping wake up ukwa time to sweep the streets.90 days ended in December of 2011 you are neckdeep in arrears. by the way you will not get a second term as pf because 2016 will be audit time so that if you are stealing you will face the same music you are making others to dance now.
So why has Lusaka failed to follow suit? Its one of the dirtiest towns I know in the world.