Kitwe market leaders at each other’s throat

Fri, 17 Mar 2017 07:18:48 +0000

By ROGERS KALERO

THE good relationship between the Kitwe Mayor Christopher Kang’ombe and the Association of Vendors, Traders and Marketeers of Zambia (AVTMZ) has allegedly angered the leadership of another marketeers association.

Association of Vendors and Marketeers (AVEMA) president Able Chikwa is alleged to have been planning to mobilize youths to beat up AVTMZ leaders because of their good relations with Mr Kangómbe.

Contacted for a comment, Mr Chikwa said a lot of things against the AVTMZ leadership, but refused to be quoted by the Daily Nation, confirming perceptions that the two organizations were at logger heads.

The AVTMZ is an association of street vendors who were relocated from the city corridors to Chisokone market and have been working with the mayor in cleaning the site where the council will construct a slab for traders of second hand clothes.

AVTMZ general secretary Kelvin Kahilu told Mr Chikwa at the Kitwe Civic Centre yesterday that he had been reported to Kitwe district police over his alleged threats to hire youths to beat up the AVTMZ leadership.

Mr Kahilu said it was sad that Mr Chikwa, a leader of a market association, could incite people against the good plans of Kitwe City Council to remove vendors from the street and the construction of a slab where traders for second hand clothes would be operating from.

“From the beginning, you were against the plans of Kitwe City Council (KCC) to remove street vendors from the corridors, but after it succeeded and you saw AVTMZ cooperating with the council in its good works, you want to intimidate us.

“Yes, you want to intimidate us because we are working with the mayor. You don’t feel good because we are working with the mayor in cleaning up Chisokone market. This is why you were even threatening to hire youths to beat us up, but the same people you wanted to hire came to inform us about your plans,” Mr Kahilu said.

Mr Kahilu said Chisokone market did not belong to any single individual and so no one should try to intimidate former street vendors who have been relocated there.

And some marketeers at Chisokone market have described some leaders of market associations as a ‘‘bunch of thieves’’ who thrived on misleading people and bringing confusion in the market.

Bernadette Chansa, a marketeer who sells kapenta at Chisokone market, told the Daily Nation that market associations were existing for personal gain and not for the benefit of members.