Kitwe cracks down on street vending

Fri, 20 Jan 2017 11:35:31 +0000

By ROGERS KALERO

A COMBINED team of State and Kitwe City Council police yesterday swung into action and removed street vendors from the Kitwe City centre shop corridors to pave way for the local authority to clean up and carry out various rehabilitation works.

The move by the local authority to remove the street vendors from the city shop corridors was praised by most Kitwe residents because it was a step towards bringing sanity in the city.

The council in particular wanted to work on Matuka Avenue which had become a dump site in the middle of the city.

Less than 80 youths who organized themselves and started chanting the UPND slogan of ‘‘Forward and we want change’’ were dispersed within a short time by police in riot gear.

Kitwe Mayor Christopher Kang’ombe said the decision to remove street vendors from corridors was done after a series of consultative meetings with the vendors and their leaders.

He said the local authority was always consulting various stakeholders before making any decisions which affected various sections of society in Kitwe.

“As a local authority we make sure we consult when making decisions. During our meetings with vendors, we told them that the decision to remove them from the city corridors was not out of cruelty, but to improve the appearance of the city and sanitation.

“We asked them what solution they had but they didn’t say anything. So even today’s operation to remove the vendors from the city corridors was not made out of malice, but after consulting them. As usual, people will call us names but others will commend us,” said Mr Kang’ombe.

A resident Mary Banda said the decision by the council to remove the vendors from the city corridors was a bold one which would help to bring sanity in the city centre.

Ms Banda said the city centre, especially Matuka Avenue, was slowly turning into a dump site and so it was good that the council had moved in at last.

“While we commend the council for its decision to remove the street vendors, we would like to see seriousness from them by improving garbage collection and working on the car parks on Matuka Avenue which has a lot of potholes,” said Ms Banda.

In the recent past, the Kitwe City centre has seen an influx of marketeers and traders who have abandoned Chisokone market to trade in the city centre where they claimed that business was much better. Both Mr Kang’ombe and KCC public relations manager Dorothy Sampa confirmed that during the meeting last week, vendors disclosed that they were being made to pay to K2,000 by a leader of the vendors only identified as Paul.

Mr Kango’ombe said during the meeting, the leaders of the vendors confessed collecting the K2,000 from vendors before being given trading space.