By Tiyese Monjeza:
Zomba City Council (ZCC) Director of Finance James Mafunga has said the council is losing about K60 million annually due to illegal vending.
Mafunga said the council loses about K5 million a month to unpaid rates.
He rated illegal vending as a major setback in the revenue collection drive.
Meanwhile, council officials and stakeholders have started engaging vendors who are selling their merchandise in undesignated places, urging them to relocate to Zomba Central and flea markets.
- Advertisement -
“After the engagement, we will be forced to flush out vendors who will defy the order to relocate to designated markets.
“We have also engaged shop owners against selling commodities on their shops’ veranda. This is aimed at bringing sanity to our city,” Mafunga said.
Zomba Police Station operations officer Selemani Mtambo said the police will wait for the council’s permission before enforcing a sweeping exercise.
One of the vendors, Andrew Namagowa, told The Daily Times that there is not enough space in the central market.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
Zomba Central market vendors’ vice chairperson Feston Kachepa said illegal vending is affecting businesses.
“Customers are opting to buy commodities along the road and they do not enter the markets. We hardly sell our goods in the market and this exercise is a welcome development,” said.
The exercise to relocate vendors to markets is part of resolutions made during the Zomba City 2023 Summit as a means of ensuring revenue collection for the council’s operations.
