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Go to root of vendors’ saga
By
George Kasakula - 26-03-2003 |
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It was only last Tuesday when the Blantyre City Assembly burnt to ashes Mbayani vendors’ kiosks. This act consequently prompted a running battle between police and assembly on one hand and vendors on the other.
One would have thought that the problem was sorted out and condemned to the realms of history but unfortunately it has resurrected with the vendors defying the assembly and reoccupying the M1 roadside.
With this development, we think it is high time the assembly did a thorough soul-searching to ascertain why despite it’s high-handedness the vendors cannot comply with its by-laws to do business in designated areas.
The city authorities should ask themselves that even after using all means at their disposal to get vendors off the streets, coupled with the building of a K40 million flea market, the vendors won’t budge an inch.
It is possible the city is treating symptoms and not the disease. This disease must be diagnosed otherwise time and resources are being spent on a problem that is refusing to go.
Arguments advanced by some vendors that their business is meant for the roadside and not the market are petty but at the same time go a long way to show their reasoning. It should be incumbent upon the assembly to show such vendors that by-laws are there for the common good of residents and cannot be bent to suit the interests of their kind.
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