LET FOREIGN TRADERS BE

CHISOKONEMarket in Kitwe occupies the second slot to City Market in Lusaka in terms of the volume of trade it gen erates in a year.

It also has a high level of in formal economy employment on the Copperbelt. As regards cross broader trade, it is the “container of goods” for the Katanga market in DRC.

Given the economic slump, the traders are blaming the low returns on the foreign traders who have increased in number in recent times for dumping the goods and services at the market (Daily Nation, May 17, 2022).

The foreign- phobia has al ways been part of Chisokone Market during economic downturns even under the leadership of now, Minister of Youth, Sports and Arts, Elvis Nkandu, who at one time served as Chisokone Market chairman.

He however managed to contain the phobia against for eign traders from degenerating into xenophobia. This is why Cross Border and Integrated Business Association, Publicity

Secretary Poster Jumbe should be supported for condemning the anti-foreign traders’ sentiments.

The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development should provide awareness arising programmes on the recently launched Continental Free Trade Area. This is because there are more foreign goods and services headed for Chisokone Market.

I want to make an inter vention from the political perspective.

Most of the foreign traders are drawn from African coun tries such as DRC, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe and more recently the Kenyan Massai and Somali.

To judge then as foreign us ing the colonial prism is to be extremely narrow. The borders were drawn by the colonialists in 1885 and we do not need to stick to their geo-mapping.

What they should do, like the rest of us, is to observe the law as established. From the class point of view, most of them are women and youth with disadvantaged socio-eco nomic backgrounds like many of us.

This is a global village and they have taken huge risks crossing borders in search of a better life. At least they opted to come to Zambia than attempt crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get into fortress Europe.