Like In Livingstone, Street Vendors Must Go

THE Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe has urged delegates to the just-ended 20th session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly to become worthy ambassadors of Zambia and his country’s tourism.
Although no response seemed to be immediately forthcoming from the delegates, who came from all corners of the globe, our immediate assumption is that none of them would decline such an engagement from Mr Mugabe.
Besides what transpired during the five-day UNWTO deliberations, the hundreds of foreign delegates are returning home with memorable impressions of what they saw in this Southern African region.
Some of these, including the Mighty Victoria Falls, hospitable people, breathtaking lodges and other resorts, as well as cultural characteristics of Zambian and Zimbabwean peoples have already been touched on in our earlier coverage of the general assembly.
Perhaps what has been little reported about is the fact that Zambia’s co-hosting of the UNWTO General Assembly was a real boon, especially to the residents of this country’s tourist capital, Livingstone.
Reports from Livingstone indicate that the place has become one of the cleanest and fits in well not just as a city but one of the most preferred tourist destinations.
Livingstone seems to have become a model of the ‘Keep Zambia Clean Campaign’ which has over the years been one of the major news items of the media hype in Zambia.
Zambians, and Livingstoneans in particular, owe much of this development to their own efforts as they made it a must that street vendors leave the streets, with Minister of Tourism and Arts Sylvia Masebo getting actively involved in ridding Livingstone streets of vendors.
It is indisputable that street vendors, who are a common sight in the streets of all cities and towns, are the major hurdle to the success of the ‘Keep Zambia Clean Campaign’.
One consequence of street vendors ‘taking over’ major roads by conducting their business there is that they have not only been disturbing the smooth flow of traffic and pedestrians but have been making the cities and towns dirty.
Of course people would not take away the fact that as one source of livelihood, street vending has become an integral component of Zambia’s urban economy.
In fact, most street vendors consider themselves to be independent and self-employed, either with or without employees.
Street vending is now more of an occupation which has existed for years in independent Zambia to the extent that it is being considered as a cornerstone of cities and towns’ historic and cultural heritage.
The practice indisputably forms a vital part of the social and economic life of a city/town.
Some of the street vendors are already well-established in fixed stalls such as kiosks and containers, while others are in semi-fixed ones like tables, as well as collapsible stands.
There are also mobile vendors who walk or cycle with their merchandise, and wheelbarrow pushers who can easily move from one street to another as they sell their items.
They are certainly distributors of some of the affordable goods, and may at best provide consumers with the most convenient and accessible options.
That is why the term ‘street vendor’ could at times be used interchangeably with ‘street trader’, ‘hawker’ and ‘peddler’.
Whatever term one may use, however, street vendors are by and large largely responsible for much of the filth littering the country’s cities and towns, and their removal from Livingstone streets in the run-up to the UNWTO General Assembly contributed to the cleanliness of Livingstone which we are either seeing or hearing about.
Foreign delegates are obviously carrying back home this picture, and if they accept President Mugabe’s call on them to become worthy ambassadors of Zambia and Zimbabwean tourism, cleanliness of Livingstone is one of the stories they will be telling overseas.
We just hope those tourists, who will be coming after this conference, won’t find Livingstone streets already once again taken over and made filthy by the street vendors.
One way of avoiding this is for Livingstone City Council to persuade the vendors to now start operating permanently in public places that are not necessarily streets but bus stations, public parks and of course markets.

Posted by Editor on August 31, 2013. Filed under HEADLINES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry