Kitwe City council Town Clerk Mbulo Seke says the council will next week start arresting and prosecuting people buying merchandise from undesignated trading places in an effort to curb street vending.
The Town Clerk says the move is in view of the observed unhealthy customer behaviour of preferring to buy from streets instead designated trading places, and also recent announcement by Local government and Rural Development Minister Garry Nkombo that the State will not tolerate street vending.
Mr. Seke observed that the preference by customers to buy from the streets is what is promoting street vending, street littering and loss of revenue in the markets.
“Under the law, any person found buying goods or merchandise from undesignated places or streets shall be liable on conviction to a fine of 666.67 penalty units or K200,” Mr. Seke said.
And Mr. Seke has stated that the council has secured 841 trading stands that are on offer to traders in Chisokone market.
He said priority will be given to the street vendors operating from Independence Avenue, Matuka Avenue, Obote, Kabelenga, Enos Chomba, Langashe and Chisokone One Way.
He further explained that the deadline for registration and allocation of the available market spaces is Monday 11th October 2021 at 17:00 hours.
“The Local Authority has secured 340 stands in Chisokone B market shelters, 30 stands at the Green market, 21 stands at Olympic and 450 stands at Chisokone A, making a total of 841 spaces available in Chisokone market alone against a self-imposed street vending population of 819,” Mr Seke explained.
Mr. Seke warned that those who will be found selling on the streets when there are spaces available in the market after the deadline will be taken to court.
Two weeks ago during the installation of Kitwe Mayor Mpasa Mwaya, Local government and Rural Development Minister Garry Nkombo warned that government will not tolerate street vending but he instructed the council to first avail trading spaces to those trading on the street after which the law should take its cause on those that will not comply.
What a wrong approach! What if he/she buys from a pedlar or a hawker. Clean the markets and have healthy inspectors in place.
What a wrong approach! That’s why we have Pedlars and hawkers. Clean the markets and have healthy inspectors in place.
Why doesn’t the council arrest and prosecute the illegal vendor?
Removing street vendors into markets, sounds fair, but punishing customers is absurd. It’s like ‘victim blaming’ – when the perpetrator of the crime goes free!
It is always expected that some people will resist change. Once that is rolled out, compliance will become normal. There will never be a time when all people will accept change. Same with the previous regime, others wanted change but some didn’t think it was necessary. Live with it and tough luck if you are a dogmatic kind of person.
This is a good move. Kudala we used to have hawkers with licenses. Now it is hard to tell who is who. So whoever is allowed to sell on the go must have documentation or identification on the ready. For those too young to know, we had order way back in the day. Trouble with those born sometime late 80s to early 90s is chaos is all they have known. Let’s bring back order.
Good move, if you cant get the vendors off the streets, “kill” the motivation and demand and the vendors will retreat to the designated markets. The rain season is around the corner but the filth on our streets is disheartening , why are we so comfortable in such filth?
Repeat after me: The Mayor of Kitwe is beautiful! Class…..
We warned you about these upnd elitists. They are rich and don’t care about the poor people. Pf was a party that represented poor Zambians and gave them a voice.
These vendors are craft. They sell at cheaper prices and are right in front of ShopRite so you decide not to trek to Chisokone and buy from them and off you drive.
What about those selling pirate goods even in designated places? You dont sort these things out little piece by little piece.
Yes, Yes, good move, somethings needs to change, we can’t continue living with the same mindsets ppl need to adjust to the rule of law.