•CAREFREE vendors organise their merchandise along Lusaka’s busy Lumumba Road without minding heavy-duty trucks that pass less than a metre away.

By SAM PHIRI –

THINK of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. One is likely to be engrossed in contemplating a well developed modern city with orderly infrastructure in the central business district.
All correct…but focus on those who have migrated to this famous city to make a livelihood through street trade for a start. Who are they? And why choose the perilous streets?
As early as 04:30 hours, business kicks off in this busy cosmopolitan city with numerous life threatening risks flanking the trade that is illegal.
Well constructed road infrastructure has been taken up by thousands of these traders who have by all means managed to evade tax and spend nothing on rentals.
Makeshift slapdash stalls; displeasing to the eye are erected in the early hours of the morning on these roads, especially filter lanes meant for automobile traffic thereby blocking traffic.  But who seems to care when this can offer a tax-evading solution for street vendors?
Since filter lanes seem to have become permanent trading slots for vendors, around 07:30 hours, all these lanes are completely blocked by makeshift stalls causing serious traffic obstruction leading to jams on major roads.
Interestingly, as traffic police get busy pursuing car owners whose road tax might have expired; they seem to forget the latent major road abusers in the name  of street vendors.
The vendors’ comfort on the road is certain as they do not even seem to have the slightest dread of what calamity might befall them on these dangerous ‘illegal trading places’ in the event of a truck brake failure.
Everything seems well as long as they are able to see the next day without any troubles from the law enforcers and the obvious impending disaster.
This is an irregularity in the name of trade whose negative effect especially in the central business district needs not to be explained as just as  a mere glance alone would make judgment of its negative effects.
Many especially motorists now feel the pinch and dilemma of driving within town such that walking through these congested roads becomes a quicker option even under the scorching sun.
All this is as a result of the questionable ‘liberty’ of trade granted to these vendors to conduct their business even from the roads in effect by Presidential assent. The vendors would not care about who is being inconvenienced and walking instead of driving.
To these ‘street blockers’ it is another way of trapping clients as those who would not bear the sun’s heat  would be forced to buy an umbrella or even some water from street hawkers.
Minister of Local Government and Housing, Emmanuel Chenda recently observed the danger that looms large at these vendors trading less than a metre away from a busy road mainly meant for heavy duty automobile.
Mr Chenda knows the dangers of street vending but seemingly taking one step at a time in addressing it as he makes it clear that though it is an illegal activity, people can as for now continue trading from the same deadly spots until Government finds a solution.
“It is illegal for vendors to trade in undesignated places when Government had spent huge sums of money on constructing markets in various parts of the country which have been abandoned” he says.
Steven Chanda is a Lusaka taxi driver whose day cannot end without him getting belligerent in his reaction to some street vendors who block his way especially when a client’s route is one that passes through the central business direct.
“I don’t understand why these people have freely taken up the filter lanes because without these lanes we are forced to drag in traffic and you know how costly that is especially with the increment of fuel prices,” he says.
Apparently, he is not only worried about his business but concurs  with Mr Chenda on the dangers looming around lives that have continued trading close to the busy roads.
“I can’t imagine what can happen if a truck careered off the road and rammed into the hundreds of traders along the road. What can really happen? I feel Government should not wait for such a serious calamity. This is very avoidable,” he says.
Leading to the main reasons as to why these illegal merchants would prefer the risky slot near busy roads or even on the road itself, they claim streets are the ‘hottest selling points’ as compared to formal markets- the very reason Minister Chenda finds disappointing.
Most market stalls are unoccupied as people have preferred the free trading zones where they could not be chased by rental collectors.
The other obvious reason is that the roads leading to these markets are usually heavily congested especially during the late hours of the day. Safety for clients is also compromised by numerous incidences of pick-pocketing
Yes, street peddling could be illegal according to the statute but it is one’s means of ‘putting food on the table and source of income.’
Out of the same that one is able to send children to school, it is argued. Healthcare is equally not free too.
The issue of street peddling has become dicey among the traders and the Government though little if not nothing is being done to create serenity in the city.
With the free trading ticket for anyone, rural urban migration is becoming a reality with most migrants coming in the name of trade. The negative impact of all this is surely felt.