CLEAR VENDORS

GOVERNMENT must step in swiftly and decisively to remove street vendors in Lusaka once and for all before the situation gets out of hand. We say so because vendors have slowly been returning to the streets and it won’t be long before Lusaka returns to the preCholera days. God forbid. :hat is Post EäinJ noZ is that the vendors have chosen Lumumba Road in the central business district where major road repairs are being carried out. Oblivious of the safety and health hazards they pose – not only to themselves, but to the public and contractors - the vendors display their merchandise in between and atop mounds of soil being dug out by excavators. As if this was not bad enough, some even have the audacity to create “bed space” for their babies next to their merchandise. They disregard the dangers involved. What if some motorist or even the excavator had an accident? They would be the same people asking for Government’s help – “Boma iyanganepo.” They are literary trading on the road being worked on, thus hindering the work of the contractors. This must stop. Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo warned on Sunday that Government will not allow any street vendor to disturb road works on Lusaka’s Lumumba road In an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Lusambo said it was dangerous for vendors to continue trading where road works were in progress, adding that no one would be spared regardless of their political affiOiation. That verbal warning must be interpreted into action by ensuring that the law enforcement agencies, particularly the Lusaka City Council becomes proactive by removing the vendors from the streets. The council cannot claim that it was powerless to act when Government has empowered councils having banned street vending – meaning that anyone trading on the streets without following procedure, is committing a crime. For too long, vendors have always claimed that there are not enough trading places in markets. This is not true because markets in most townships in Lusaka are not full. Mr Lusambo reminded the vendors for example that street vending was illegal by law and that Government would not allow them to disturb the on-going road works in Lusaka. The recent tragedy at the Black Mountain in Kitwe should spur the authorities into action and not compromise on safety. In the Kitwe disaster, safety was thrown to the winds and the result was that 10 small-scale miners died and several were injured after an accident that could have been avoided. The vendors ought to realise that trading along Lumumba Road is dangerous and the best they could do, if they care about their families, is to return to designated markets where their safety is assured. Above all, letting vendors roam freely on the streets is inviting disaster. Cholera thrived in Lusaka because the same Yendors Pade it di̇cXOt for the coXnciO to clean the city. If the vendors do not want to leave the streets on their own, Government must not shy away from using force. Even if it means using the defence forces, let it be so. Maybe that is the little shove they need for them to see sense.