Clearing Zambia’s streets of street vendors

Traders are not street vendors out of the love of breaking the law but out of necessity, to make a livelihood in the best possible way without having to resort to criminality.

By Chishala Kateka | NHP president.

Lusaka, July 20 – On Tuesday this week, we saw Police swing into action and clear the Lusaka Central Business District of street vendors.

Although, as New Heritage Party (NHP), we have spoken into this matter before and asked the Government to approach the issue in a more humane manner and give the traders notice as well as alternative places to trade from before taking such drastic action, we are acutely aware that this issue is really complex and that it will not be resolved by simply moving the traders from one part of the city (any city in Zambia) to another.

This issue needs to be dealt with holistically, firstly by understanding its genesis and then taking the appropriate corrective measures that will see the cleaning up of our streets nationwide once and for all.

We need to understand that the traders do not do what they do out of the love of breaking the law but do so out of necessity. They do so in order to make a livelihood in the best possible way they can without having to resort to actually criminal methods.

These hard working Zambians should be celebrated for their self-reliant spirit, than criminalising them in the manner successive governments have done since the reintroduction of multi-partyism and economic liberalisation under the MMD administration.

It is noteworthy that this chaotic state of affairs has not always subsisted and certainly during the 27 year Kaunda era, street trading used to occur through individuals holding a Hawker’s Licence. Law and order was followed to the letter then.

Also Read: A balancing act: The struggles and dilemmas of street vendors in Zambia – Dr. Lawrence Mwelwa.

This order was broken with privatisation which saw a number of people thrown on the streets through the resultant loss of jobs at the time and who did not or could not find alternative employment. These had to find a means of survival for them and their families.

The Government at the time, having created the problem by blindly following the same IMF programmes that are being religiously implemented by this current UPND government and not having an adequate response or social safety net to the problem created, allowed unregulated street vending to mushroom unchallenged. Remember the “Vendor’s Desk” at State House.

We must recognise that street vending has continued through all the successive Governments even though each Government has tried through haphazard and half thought through measures to clear the streets unsuccessfully. Why is this so?

On the streets are found:

◾Those that lost jobs in the privatisation process. Most of these have passed on but their places have been taken by their children.
◾School dropouts that have no alternative but to make a livelihood on the streets
◾School leavers, who have no skill to offer industry and therefore not able to find jobs.
◾College and University graduates who should be employed in formal employment but not able to be absorbed in institutions in the public or private sector.

Let us therefore call the Street Vending issue by its real name – the failure by Government to create adequate job opportunities for its citizens!!

It is worth noting that if these traders had a more lucrative option, they would certainly opt for that. If farming, for example, was made attractive, a lot of these would not need to be prompted to go into farming, however farming has been made even less attractive with the removal of subsidies, uncertainties of FRA buying crops planted and fertilizer and other input being beyond the reach of most people.

This issue of street vending goes way beyond someone going to Rwanda, London or France and seeing their clean streets and making a decision to clean up our streets without first understanding the genesis of and then dealing with the root cause of the problem.

Street vending speaks of the policy failure by successive Governments to address a problem that they themselves have created but are now inversely blaming on the victims for their own ineptitude and lack of a serious approach to what is basically an unemployment problem on a massive scale.

Also Read: We don’t have a capable leader to mobilise national wealth.
“It would be a waste of time to get the debt restructuring without creating the necessary production capacity in the country to repay the debts when the repayments are due!”

In Zambia, with almost 90% of those in employment working informally, this is a national problem which must be dealt with holistically, in a manner that will ensure that it does not recur.

The only way street vending will be curtailed and not recur is by giving the majority of the vendors alternative sources of income, that will bring back dignity to their lives.

That will include but not be limited to government ensuring that the formal employment arena is more inclusive. In addition, ensuring that public market stalls are reserved for Zambians at affordable fees is an absolute must. Further to this, there is need to enact a new Land Ownership Law to empower all adult Zambians with Land, for a dwelling and agricultural or commercial use.

The ownership must, of necessity, include all the natural resources above and under the ground. This alone is going to automatically make all such Zambians wealthy to a point. This issue of; land allocation will see the absorbing of the majority of otherwise unemployable citizens.

Finally, everything must be done to ensure that foreign entities exploiting our natural resources pay fair taxes to enable the Government to carry out these interventions to the benefit of Zambians.

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