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| National |
| Vendors threaten to demonstrate against foreigners |
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by
Joseph Langa, 09 November 2004
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09:04:28
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Small-scale businessmen in Lilongwe have threatened to stage demonstrations if government will not stop foreigners from operating as vendors.
The traders have written a petition to the Office of the President and Cabinet in which they accuse government of failing to support them by allowing foreigners, mainly Nigerians, Chinese, Indians and Burundians, to operate as vendors.
The letter has been copied to ministries of Trade, Home Affairs and Justice; Lilongwe City Assembly; Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation among others.
“Definitely the government of Malawi is to blame for its failure to formulate policies. Our position is that citizens must be protected and be allowed to do business in an environment free from foreigners.
“We indigenous Malawians feel that the government should do something to protect our business from collapsing otherwise there will be tension. We have seen what is making us poor.
“Where is empowerment government is talking about? This is mockery to justice,” reads the letter in part.
Secretary for the group Dick Phiri, who delivered the petition to the Lilongwe bureau of The Nation, said the letter was already delivered to all concerned ministries.
Secretary for Home Affairs Charles Msosa confessed in an interview on Monday that illegal foreign traders have flooded the country because government does not have enough money to carry out regular inspections to flush them out.
Nation spot checks in Lilongwe discovered that foreigners dominate vending businesses in most parts of Lilongwe.
Msosa said his office is aware of the complaints raised by local traders and “we are continuing dialogue with them”.
He said under normal circumstances his office, through the Immigration department, provides Business Resident Permits (BRPs) to foreigners if they have a minimum requirement of $50,000 to demonstrate that they will do meaningful investment.
“But we have discovered that some of them have cheated the system. They don’t invest in what they said they are doing.
“This is why there is a monitoring mechanism to check if what they said they will be doing is what they are doing,” Msosa said.
He added that BRPs are confiscated from those discovered cheating the system.
But Msosa said inspections have not been as regular and effective as they are supposed to be because of lack of resources.
Msosa said his ministry will continue dialogue with the vendors and business men in Lilongwe and the country as a whole and will soon carry out another major inspection to flush out illegal traders.
But he said his office relies on the local traders to inform them about foreigners who operate illegal businesses.
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