Kitwe DC pleads for vendors

VENDORS trading on the land owned by Hotel Edinburgh near Chisokone market in Kitwe should be given up to April, this year, District Commissioner Binwell Mpundu has suggested.

Kitwe City Council (KCC) requested management to allow vendors to trade near the hotel premises until the construction of the new shelter was completed.

But after the completion of the new shelter not all the vendors were accommodated, leaving some of them to continue conducting business on the land belonging to the Hotel.

Management at the hotel is now telling them to vacate the place, forcing them to cry to the DC.

Mr Mpundu said he had requested management at Hotel Edinburgh to allow vendors up to April so that the local authority could look for an alternative place for the vendors.

“I am told last time when the council wrote to them over the same issue, the hotel management refused to heed to the advice, but now I have issued the guidance which they should follow.

Mr Mpundu said the issue between the vendors and Hotel Edinburgh management had dragged for a long time and he was hoping that both parties would work towards resolving the impasse.

Some marketeers said they had been forced to take the matter to the DC because the council had failed to resolve it.

Ms Maggie Banda said she was hopeful that the DC would help them resolve the matter which had been dragging for a long time.

“We are grateful that our DC has always been accommodating and straight forward. He will not promise you what he cannot afford. No. Our meetings with him have always been fruitful.

“We always come to his office because we have hope in him. We are sure that even this issue will be resolved amicably, unless the management at the hotel tries to behave funny,” Ms Banda said.