STREET VENDING IN LUSAKA

Time and again the zambian government has tried to remove street venders from the streets to the markets but they keep coming back.The general question is has the government done enough to help these venders formalise their businesses.

Lusaka city council (LCC) public relations manager Chanda Makanta says the biggest challenge is that these traders feel they make more profits when they sell from the streets because they dont pay any levy to the local authority,and they try to runaway from all these costs by coming on the streets.Ms Makanta says the council will not condone this and they will not allow anyone to continue selling on the streets and the council has also started dealing with the peolple who buy from these venders by fining them.she says the government has built enough markets for them to trade from.

VEWS OF THE VENDER

Contrary to what lcc is saying,the venders feel the procedure for aquiring stands at the market has not been made easy for the ordinary citizens to acqire.The venders feel there is a lot of corruption taking place in stand allocation.They say management at these markets has given out these stands to people with money ,who later rent out the stands at high prices which these venders can not afford .

WAY FORWARD

The lusaka district business association chairperson Ms Mercy Phiri feels the reason why these venders keep coming back on the streets is becous they want to reach out to the customers who find it very difficult to go to the markets ,which she says are located very far away from the city center.she also says the markets are not enough to accomodate all the people doing business hence the high charges beeing charged on the few stands available.she has called on the goverment to build more markets and legalise a part of the city center for the venders at peak times.

Caroline Michelo