• PRESIDENT Lungu interacts with children in Kitwe.

By SYLVIA MWEETWA  AND JANE MWANSA –
PRESIDENT EDGAR Lungu has advised civic authorities to find alternative trading spaces before removing street vendors.
The President said yesterday he was greatly saddened by the death of a female  street  vendor who was involved in a scuffle with Kitwe City Council police after being accused of trading in an unauthorised area of the central business district last month.
“I want to state that I was not happy to learn about the death of a female vendor here in Kitwe. We are in Government to protect lives and not to kill. Actually, I cried,” he said addressing the traders, civic leaders and other ranking party and Government officials that accompanied him.
In a separate interview, Provincial police chief Charity Katanga said investigations into the case had almost been concluded to decide how to proceed over the matter.
The President was in Kitwe to hand over to traders at the sprawling Chisokone Market, a recently constructed shelter to replace one that collapsed due to heavy rain last year. He made a contribution of K250,000 towards the project.
“I would like to appeal to you, Mayor of  Kitwe and  your team,  to be merciful and  engage with the people, ” he said, explaining that the livelihoods of many Zambians depended  on trading in markets. That drew cheers from traders.
The president said  it would  be  unfair  to  remove  street  vendors without providing them with alternative trading space, explaining that street  vending was not a phenomenon that was unique to Zambia.
He said that as long  as the  governments were struggling to create employment for locals,  especially the youth, vendors  would continue  to  exist because it was a means of  survival all over the world.
He said  through the ministries  of  Local Government and  Finance, Government was currently  looking for  resources  to provide decent trading shelters for marketeers and  vendors, keenly aware that many Zambians were raising and educating their children from selling in markets.
He called for calm and appealed to traders  to work together with  the council and market associations to bring sanity to their operations.
The President said there were laws regarding the formation of boards to supervise the operations of markets and bus stations but if people were not happy  with some of the regulations,  Government  would consider amending them.
Mr Lungu took the opportunity to advise traders who had benefited from the Presidential Empowerment Fund (PEF) to pay back their loans on time so that others could be given similar help.
He said market associations in charge of the programme were reluctant to disburse further loans as many of those who got the money had not paid back. (Continued on Page 2)