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Thank you vendors; Kaliati, Karonga/Chitipa road
Vendors should have learnt something from what befell their former colleagues in the streets, minibus touts, that sometimes this government does not mince words.
When it announced minibus touts were a nuisance, their business illegal, and government would stop it, many in the trade thought government was just joking. They were wrong.
Today, both minibus operators and passengers are happy for that development. It is my hope that the former minibus touts have adjusted accordingly to the realities of life and found new but legitimate ways of earning a living.
And I have every hope it is just a matter of time before street vendors also wake up to the reality that it is now their turn to face the law however unreasonable and harsh they may feel it is.
In fact, the vendors should consider their situation better than that of minibus touts. The vendors are only being relocated while minibus touting was banned.
That is why I want to say thumbs up to government for a job well done on the vendors. The fact that they have been in the streets for the past 12 years does not make their business legal.
In fact, these people squandered an opportunity by not moving into the flea markets which government built for them with funding from Press Trust. The argument that the flea markets are small could only have made sense after some of them first occupied the structures. Government would surely have known what to do with those who would not have found room in the buildings. I reckon that is what it will do now that vendors have complied.
The bottomline is that no one is above the law. And this is to say nothing about the fact that street vending is a health and security risk to people. Street vending also defaces the facades of our beautiful streets.
Let cleanness and beauty return to our cities. Let people move in the streets with peace of mind.
Of course, government is also to blame for allowing people to break its laws with impunity and in many cases for even encouraging the illegal business.
But for the cities to return to their former glory, there will have to be a massive campaign for renovation and repainting. The faces of many shops look like they were last painted half a century ago.
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It looks like government never has a shortage of controversies on its hands to deal with. Apart from the vendors’ issue, government this week has had to do a lot of explaining to defend its decision to invite one controversial President Robert Mugabe to open and name the Midima Road after him.
Something laughable. Why did outspoken Minister of Information Patricia Kaliati waste her time and energy engaging civil society and the media in a lengthy exchange of salvos defending Mugabe’s opening of an ‘EU-funded’ road?
Kaliati’s ignorance about who funded the road has confirmed my fears that she is sometimes not well informed about issues she defends. How did she feel when her counterpart in the Transport Ministry came out to set the record straight that the 60-kilometre road was funded not by the European Union but by the Treasury? If I were in her shoes, I would have felt very embarrassed.
It is a paradox that Kaliati was ignorant of the source of funding for a road which passes through her constituency—Tchoda, Nkando, Chinakanaka.
But all this is because she thinks she has answers to all questions and queries and always feels duty bound to defend even the indefensible. No wonder apart from being rude, I find a lot of her oratory to the media shallow, empty and uninspiring.
Having said that let me also mention that there are a lot of positives for her. One is that she works. And in that regard, she has made a difference in the tourism sector where she has tried to up standards. We are now seeing something in this sector.
My free advice to her, though, is that no one expects her to know everything that is happening in government be it at the level of policy or implementation. To be an effective government spokesperson, Kaliati should not be shy to consult relevant ministries for information on issues the media wants to find out from government. That way she will avoid falling into the trap of defending unnecessary things.
My special compliment to her is that she is very press friendly. I have very little respect for people who shun the media. They make me think they are not confident in themselves or sharp enough to take an intelligent reporter head on and come out on top. Kaliati does not fall into that category of people.
Then there is the Karonga/Chitipa Road which has caused quite a stir. This week, people of Chitipa put their MPs to task petitioning them to an indaba and urging them to quit DPP as a way of pressuring government to construct the road.
But do you know why they are so bitter now after they have been cheated on this road for a very long time? The bitterness stems from the manner President Bingu wa Mutharika promised to deliver on the road. The President addressed a campaign rally in Chitipa about three days before the Chitipa Wenya by-election. After castigating previous administrations for their failure to construct the road, he directed that construction of the road should start the following day.
To the people of Chitipa this meant everything was ready for construction to start and that in a few days’ time they would begin to see something happening on the road. And it was for that reason that they gave DPP their votes. But it has now dawned on them all they got from Mutharika was just sweet talk and that construction of the road would not start any time soon.
That was a big blunder, Mr. President. What you should do is to try and pacify the people by telling them what exactly is happening. Simple. Don’t lie again.––Feedback: stevenhlane@yahoo.co.uk
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