Relief for traders

URBAN dwellers or visitors would testify to the harassment micro traders or street hawkers undergo at the hands of the city or municipal “askaris”.

In an attempt to make ends meet, and given the few or limited formal employment opportunities available, many people – mostly youths and women – have taken to entrepreneurship.

These include the young men and women, and even some elderly people, who have eked out a living over the years by hawking all sorts of goods in the streets and neighbourhoods. They also include vendors who arrange their wares on the pavements… clothing, shoes, cosmetics and toiletries. Some even trade in perishables such as fruit and vegetables. They have found, especially in busy spots in urban areas, a ready and lucrative market for their wares.

A number of women, popularly known as “Mama Ntilie”, have been preparing and selling all sorts of dishes, including rice, “ugali” and accompaniments at affordable prices. There are true examples or stories being told of such micro traders being able to meet education costs for their children – from primary school to university level.

Some have been able to build decent houses, open bigger shops and buy land for farming. Either acting on a personal whim or on orders from higher up, some unscrupulous city askaris have been ambushing food and other vendors and street hawkers, destroying their wares or taking them (the goods) to some unknown destination, never to be accounted for again.

Given this unpleasant scenario, Tanzanians must have sighed with relief at the stop order to such evictions in urban areas, issued by President John Magufuli in his meeting with the top brass of the Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Governments in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.

Instead of evicting them in such an undignified manner, the authorities should try as best they can to help these micro traders carry out their work in an orderly manner and at officially designated areas. The sooner this is done, the better.