CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Patrick Chapita, Zimbabwe, May 1998
THEME = SOCIAL CONDIT.
Battlelines have been drawn between street vendors and Maputo city
council
because the vendors are trading their wares in the central business district
The Maputo city fathers have given vendors an ultimatum to vacate the city's central business district. The vendors are adamant that they will stay put. Several meetings have been held between the city authorities and the street vendors' representatives over the past three months, but, according to Maputo's mayor, Joao Baptista Cosme, the vendors are sticking to their guns and will not be moved from their hold over the city centre.
This stalemate has resulted in the relationships between the vendors and the municipal police developing into a "cat-and- mouse situation". Running battles are now a common sight in the capital between vendors and the municipal police.
Mayor Cosme says: "The problem with these vendors is that they do not meet the strict health guidelines demanded by the municipal health department. They must get off the streets or they will be removed by force".
The whole situation has become even more serious because of the mounds of garbage lying everywhere, and the consequent danger of cholera. Mounds of rubbish have accumulated around the street vendors' stalls and the illegal "markets" sprouting up at street corners and on patches of waste land. Food and drink is sold in many of these places under frighteningly squalid conditions. Clouds of flies move around the heaps of fetid garbage, on to exposed loaves of bread, piles of flour and all kinds of foodstuffs. Many residents blame the street vendors for these squalid conditions and they wonder why the city council is taking so long to remove the vendors from the streets. "These people are causing a public health disaster", says Jorge Baloi, a private health practitioner in Maputo. "The city council and Ministry of Health officials should continue to put pressure on the vendors - that anyone who sells food under unhygienic conditions, should be "closed down". The vendors should have been removed long ago. I wonder why the authorities are taking the whole matter so complacently, especially when there is a threat of cholera".
Towards the end of last year, there was not much in the way of celebrations for Maputo's 110th anniversary of being raised to the status of a city. Many residents felt there was little to celebrate, as a cholera epidemic was raging in their city.
The vendors have vowed to stay where they are, as this is the only way they can earn their livelihoods. They also expressed apprehension over the measures taken to expel them from the city streets.
Elisa Vilanculos of the vendors' commission at Barracas do Museu says they will not move "come rain or sunshine. If we can't sell here, how can we live?" he asks. "We also need to survive, just as the rich do." Vilanculos says the place the city authorities wants them to go to, is not a good marketing point, as no clients go there.
When facing up to the authorities, some street vendors have experienced traumatic situations. They accuse the municipal police of harassing them. They also say the police raid them just to get a bribe (which can be as much as US $20). Sometimes they collect goods from vendors for their own consumption.
"I nearly got struck down by a car while trying to run away from the police", says Rosina Manhenje, a 43-year-old vendor in Maputo. "These people don't care about us". Another vendor, Jestina Jose Pedro says: "I lost all my goods - cassette radios, clothing, the lot, to the police when they raided me. They wanted me to pay a bribe, but because I couldn't meet their demands, they took everything".
Maputo's street vendors say they will continue to sell their wares in the streets until the city finds them something better to do.
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1998 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement