Marketeers abandon Kalingalinga market
Written by Millennium on May 18, 2019
LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes
MARKETEERS in Kalingalinga Township have abandoned their shelter in preference to trading on the street.
A check by the Sun found that the market shelter had been deserted.
Only two elderly marketeers were found operating at the market.
The two marketeers who asked not to be identified complained that business was not easy for them because very few people were buying from them.
One of the marketeers said the traders had abandoned the market and opted to be on the streets.
She said the problem started when Lusaka City Council (LCC) advised those trading outside the market to move 100 metres.
“We are not sure if street vending is allowed or not. Traders have left the market shelter. Is it not possible for the council to be chasing them from the streets of our community so that people are found in the market and we can be trading together?” she said.
The aged woman said they had complained a number of times to the councillor and their Member of Parliament, Nkandu Luo, that the people selling outside the market shelter were blocking their business, but nothing was being done.
She said Professor Luo and the councillor had been to the market several times and were aware of the problem.
The source said there was need for the market to be renovated so that the people who were trading outside could move into the market shelter.
And Kalingalinga Ward 31, Kasongo Chomba, said he was aware that the market shelter was deserted and was not in good condition he said plans were underway to find resources through the Constitution Development Fund (CDF) to construct a new modern market.
Mr Chomba said once completed they will ensure that sanity is brought back at the market by making sure that marketeers go back and operate from the market shelter.
“We are making plans to ensure that the traders go back in the market because before the construction of a new market start. The structure is already there as a ward we will make sure that the council moves in and begin to charge those who are outside.
Mr Chomba added, “And we will bring in the council police and whoever is found not trading in the market premises they will seize whatever they are selling,” he said.
The other old marketeer questioned why the office of the councilor was not restoring order at the market place.
“Is this how the law will be; that those who trade outside will always trade and those of us who trade in the market place will be like that even when we are just the two of us here? Is this how the law will be?” she said.
“Will the office of councillor will not put us in the same place so that we can be selling together. We can be making a profit, unlike what is happening now.”
She said she and her colleague also wanted to make a profit and raise enough income to provide for their children and grandchildren.
The council should explain to them if the law did not require people to enter the market so that the two of them could also stop selling in the market and find something else to do.
