CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Cheela F.K.Chilala, Zambia, April 1999
THEME = SOCIAL ACTION
28 April 1999 - "Operation clean up" in Lusaka.
Council workers ans riot police remove street vendor's stands
When the exercise was over, the face of Lusaka had changed. Council trucks moved in to collect the debris while police in full riot gear were stationed at strategic points all over the city, to ensure the street vendors did not resort to violence or attempt to reconstruct their stalls.
The joint council and police operation was supervised by Lusaka police chief Benard Mayonda, who emphasised that the police would work with the council to put an end to the problem of street vending which has bedeviled Lusaka for a long time. "We are merely enforcing the law", he said in the wake of the operation. "Government is concerned about street vending...We shall continue to assist the council to enforce by-laws. Vendors should therefore abide by the law".
Lusaka city council spokesman Daniel M'soka, pleased with the success of the operation, said: "This is only the start of the exercise. We shall spread to the townships and are ready to use force if that is what is called for. Our task now is to act".
The exercise, which is part of the council's "Keep Lusaka Clean" campaign, was welcomed by Lusaka residents and the business community. To most Lusaka residents, the success of the operation was a miracle, as they had been resigned to living with the vendor problem which was ever getting worse, forcing some organizations and business houses to move out of town to quiet residential areas free of street vendors and criminals disguised as vendors.
Thousands of vendors literally took over shop corridors and streets, especially Freedom Way. Vehicles had little room to manoeuvre as the vendors occupied parking spaces and parts of the road. They sold anything from hardware to fresh food and alcohol. It was said that while moving from one end of Freedom Way to the other, one could get stone-drunk, get high on marijuana, drink tea or coffee, and enjoy bar-b-que meat. So serious was the street vendor problem, that it was widely blamed for the cholera outbreak earlier in the year which claimed many lives.
While business boomed for the vendors, Lusaka degenerated from being "The Garden City" to a dumping ground for filth. For some traders, business slumped as they found themselves competing with vendors strategically located in shop corridors. Some of the traders, however, contributed to the problem by giving some of their wares to street vendors to sell on their behalf.
One of the most interesting aspects of the street vendor phenomena, was that many of the vendors vacated their stalls in legal markets to trade on the street. Occupancy rates of the more than fifty conventional markets in the city fell noticeably. The newly constructed modern Lusaka City Market, for instance, almost became a white elephant when only 30% of the more than 4,000 available stands were occupied by traders. Yet, just outside the market on the street, business was booming. The traders argued that there was better business on the street than in the market.
Past attempts to remove the vendors from the streets had failed. The vendors had outlived several mayors and were sure they would never be kicked out. The first time the council tried to forcibly move the vendors from the streets, they rioted, destroying property and stoning cars in the town centre. President Chiluba rebuked the council authorities for their lack of sensitivity when dealing with the vendor problem. He instructed them to allow the vendors to continue trading on the street until alternative trading places were found for them. Elated by the presidential intervention, the vendors went back to the streets - with a vengeance.
For his part, the President created a Vendors Desk at State House and appointed Josiah Chishala as Deputy Minister responsible for the desk. Henceforth, the vendors gave their business address as being at: "The office of the President". The vendor thus became a political issue which could never be handled without consulting State House. Many vendors misunderstood the presidential gesture to mean they were now untouchable. It was not surprising, therefore, that when Lusaka Town Clerk Jack Mwiimbu put out a notice in the press for vendors to move out of the streets just before clampdown, the vendors treated the notice as a mere joke. They did not think the new mayor, Patricia Nawa, could succeed where her predecessors had failed. The notice directed the vendors to move out of the streets from 21 April, and register for stalls at conventional markets.
Some vendors responded by demanding that the council should first find them alternative trading areas before telling them to move off the streets. Efforts by Deputy Minister Josiah Chishala to persuade the vendors to cooperate with the council failed. The vendors then lost the support and protection of the Vendors Desk when the council and police destroyed their stalls.
The vendors watched helplessly and in dismay as council trucks carted away the debris of their stalls. The heavy presence of riot police in full riot gear deterred the more excitable ones from resorting to violence. An attempt by some of the vendors to march to State House to seek an audience with President Chiluba over the issue, failed when police denied them a permit. Conceding defeat, many vendors rushed to conventional markets to register for stalls, or to reclaim the stalls they had abandoned to become street vendors. Within a day or two, the Lusaka City Market was fully occupied and business boomed as competition from the streets was eliminated.
The Lusaka City Council, it seems, has finally won the battle against street vendors. Lusaka residents have welcomed the removal of the vendors, while the government has declared areas where the street vendors used to operate from as "prohibited areas", and anyone found trading from there will be prosecuted by a special court set up by the council. Mayor Patricia Nawa is now savouring her victory. But about the vendors?
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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