Vice President Mutete Nalumango has urged local governments to adopt bylaws that will impose fines on persons who purchase goods from street vendors.
According to Mrs. NALUMANGO, the bylaws will discourage people from purchasing goods from street vendors, which will eventually cause the merchants to revert to established marketplaces.
She emphasizes that the government is building markets to give vendors dignity and claims that buying from streets should end nationwide.
The rebuilt Lusaka City Market, which was completely destroyed in July 2017, was officially opened by the Vice President while she was speaking.
The Zambia National Service, or ZNS, renovated the Market under the direction of the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, or DMMU.
Additionally, Mrs. NALUMANGO has declared that the SIMON MWEWA Lane Market will open shortly and that work on a new market at Munyaule in Lusaka would soon begin in order to expand the number of selling locations.
Local Government Minister Gary Nkombo has also asked all displaced street merchants to come back to the Market.
The government, according to Mr. NKOMBO, does not want to see individuals trading on the streets since it is against the law.
According to Kanyama MP MONTY CHINKULI, businessmen who received loans and grants from the Constituency Development Funds would now have a respectable location from which to conduct business.
