For informal traders such as Joyce Meke, the streets are their workplaces, but the constant fear of alleged police harassment and abuse hangs over their heads like a dark cloud.
The traders, specifically those selling fruits, raw cassava, bananas, groundnuts and other produce allege physical abuse by law enforcers and city council officials during raids.
Meke, who has been vending for over five years, recounted in an interview on Thursday how police officers and city council officials allegedly beat her up and confiscated her bananas in Blantyre central business district.
She said: “I was walking along the alleyway behind Malawi Posts Corporation offices in Blantyre with a basket of bananas on my head.
“Then I heard a voice behind me asking what I was selling. When I turned around, I saw a uniformed police officer and another in civilian. I knew they were about to confiscate my bananas. Before I responded, the one in civilian pounced on me.”
With a baby strapped to her back, Meke claimed that as she tried to run, the officer grabbed and dragged her from the alleyway and minutes, she was thrown into a city council vehicle.
In it, she found some colleagues with their confiscated merchandise.
The Mbayani Township resident vividly remembers that the matter occurred on a Friday afternoon.
Meke spent the entire weekend in a police holding cell at the station.
Her baby was, however, taken by her relatives who attempted to bail her out.
“I called my relatives who managed to bail me out after spending the weekend in a holding cell,” she said.
Sadly, when she was finally granted bail, she claimed that her bananas had been eaten and she only got her basket.
Her efforts to speak to the officers on duty at the time proved futile.
As such, Meke claimed she got a loan from a loan shark to refinance her business.
Regardless of the alleged abuse, Meke said the little she earns from the streets supports her two-member household.
She said: “These people do not care about our livelihoods. They do not even treat us with dignity.”
Another vendor Ronald Nampeya said the abuse is not limited to violence.
He alleged that they are sometimes forced to bribe police officers in exchange for their freedom.
Nampeya further alleged that those that fail to pay are taken into custody where they are subjected to harassment, including human rights violations.
“We cannot all trade in the formal market because the space is limited. That market [Blantyre Market] was constructed a long time ago and at the time, the population was not big. Let them construct a modern market that can accommodate all of us,” he said.
While Nation on Sunday sought interviews from informal traders within Blantyre City, it could not independently verify whether the same is rife in cities of Zomba, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.
But informal trading is regulated by the Local Government Act and prescribes different penalties for each city council.
In a written response on Thursday, Blantyre City Council spokesperson Deborah Luka said: “First of all, we have never received any official complaint on this matter so give me time to find out from our enforcement team.”
But in an interview on Thursday, Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance projects and paralegal coordinator Lisa Tembo Mbiri said the alleged abuse against informal traders is an issue of concern.
She said: “We have been receiving similar concerns from informal traders in previous years and I think it is time that they [informal traders] were introduced to various reporting mechanisms whenever their rights have been violated.”
However, National Police deputy spokesperson Harry Namwaza on Thursday said abuse is not condoned.
He further said any informal trader who has complaints against police officers must report them to the officer-in-charge of an area’s police station.
He said if an informal trader already lodged a complaint, they are at liberty to make follow-ups.
Namwaza said: “However, the traders have a responsibility to comply with the law regarding trading within the city because sometimes these traders turn violent and resist law enforcement. In such situations, police may be compelled to use reasonable and proportional force.”
On the issue of bribes, he said the Malawi Police Service does not condone such.
The African Court on Human and People’s Rights, in a 2020 advisory opinion relating to the disparate impact of vagrancy laws in African countries, stated that governments should not make unreasonable distinctions in their treatment of individuals based on their economic status.
Its opinion specifically argued that authorities should not criminalise poor and vulnerable individuals who use public spaces to earn a living.
