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Blantyre City defers vendors eviction

Nandolo (C): We need to rearange
Nandolo (C): We need to rearange

Blantyre City Council (BCC) has deferred the eviction of vendors from city streets to a later date.

Initially, BCC was scheduled to clear vendors from doing business in the streets. The council is apparently following in the footsteps of Lilongwe and Mzuzu city councils which also removed vendors from streets two months ago.

BCC chief executive Ted Nandolo said they failed to carry out the operation as initially planned because the police, who are key to the exercise, were busy with President Joyce Banda’s departure to South Africa yesterday.

Said Nandolo: “As you know, HE [Her Excellency the President] had an activity [at Chileka Airport going to a Sadc summit in South Africa], the police were busy and we need to rearrange.”

Asked when the exercise will take place, Nandolo said the council will have to meet the police to map out the way forward.

On Thursday, Nandolo told The Nation that vendors will be removed from the streets starting from Monday this week.

His argument was that the council needs to make the city clean as vendors are known to make places look untidy.

Spot checks in Blantyre on Monday showed that the vendors were as usual selling their merchandise such as Irish potatoes, mangoes and shoes.

One vendor, who refused to disclose her name, but was selling mangoes, said she was aware about Monday’s impending arrival of council officials.

Nandolo also took a swipe at people who buy from vendors trading in illegal areas, saying they are encouraging them to stay in the streets.

“If people stop buying from them [vendors], they will be ashamed and eventually will return to their respective designated trading spaces,” he said.

In Lilongwe and Mzuzu, vendors left the streets in September. Interestingly, it was fellow vendors who removed their colleagues after realising that those that were in flea markets were losing out on business.

In Lilongwe, things turned into commotion with some vendors started stoning and damaging several vehicles, mostly minibuses. But in Mzuzu, things were a bit calm.

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