DON’T HARBOUR STREET VENDORS, KABWE BOOTH OPERATORS WARNED

BOOTH operators in Kabwe will have their trading licences revoked if they are found hiding merchandise for street vendors in their booths, Kabwe Municipal Council assistant public relations manager Mumba Mafwenko has warned.

Ms Mafwenko said in an interview with the Daily Nation that the council had observed with sadness that some booth operators were conniving with street vendors who were hiding their merchandise in the booths.

She said by their action, the booth operators were accomplices in perpetrating street vending and warned that they risked their trading licenses being revoked.

Ms Mafwenko said the sale goods or merchandise in any street or public place other than the market was prohibited according to Statutory Instrument (SI) No.12 of 2018.

"It should be pointed out that the move by booth operators to harbour street vendors is perpetuating street vending contrary to Statutory Instrument No. 12 of 2018. Furthermore, offering to sale or buying goods or merchandise in undesignated place or on the street is against the law," Ms Mafwenko said.

She said street vendors, booth operators and those who bought from the vendors risked being arrested and charged for committing an offence.

The local authority was committed to maintain cleanliness in the district and, therefore, would not tolerate any one breaking the law, she said.

She said council police had continued conducting massive operations to enforce SI No. 12 and had been confiscating goods and merchandise from those found trading illegally in town.