Lilongwe City Council (LCC) officials and vendors on Tuesday swept the city’s streets and markets as a reconciliatory gesture after the two sides successfully relocated the remaining street vendors to designated trading areas.
New chairperson of Lilongwe City Markets Vendors James Soko said in an interview the exercise signified the end of vending in the streets of Lilongwe. He said the gesture also marked the beginning of a good working relationship between vendors and the council.
“This cleaning exercise means a lot. It means the vendors will not come again to trade in the streets of Lilongwe. It also means that our [vendors] relationship with the Lilongwe City Council is now very good,” said Soko, popularly known as ‘Yerayera’ among his trading peers.
He said criminals took advantage of the presence of the vendors in the streets to commit crime.
LCC public relations officer Tamara Chafunya said the new vendors’ committee has demonstrated cooperation and commitment to a good working relationship.
“This joint sweeping exercise will help build a good relationship with the vendors. The new committee has shown that it is ready to understand what our city by-laws require of them,” she said.
The sweeping exercise started from Lilongwe Community Centre Hall through the main bus depot’s exit road to Malangalanga Road, Kamuzu Procession Road, the central market and the Tsoka Flea Market up to the Old Town Hall where the exercise ended.
