Livingstone rids off street vendors

Tourism and Arts Minister Sylvia Masebo has ordered the removal of all street vendors on the main streets and corridors in the tourist capital.

Ms Masebo who led a team of council officials, some government officers and state police in riot gear today forced many street vendors out of the streets in a bid to make the street clean and bring
sanity.

Ms Masebo said trading on the streets in the tourist capital has made streets very dirty and crowded a situation she noted was not conducive for tourists.

The Minister said there was need to remove all streets vending activities in order to bring cleanliness and sanity to the city ahead of the United Nations World Tourism General Assembly (UNWTO) in August this year.

“We cannot allow a situation where our streets are so congested with all sorts of merchandise without room for people or tourist to freely walk and do their activities and I want everyone out,” said Ms Masebo.

“And it is unfortunate that the council decided to allow this situation to become what it is today instead of taking action and stop people from trading on the corridors,” Ms Masebo said.

Ms Masebo also ordered the immediate removal of all advertisement bill board which were wrongly placed to make the streets look better.

Meanwhile, Ms Masebo is expected to meet all the street vendors who have been forced to vacant trading on the streets at the council chambers this afternoon to find a suitable place for them to trade from and not on the main streets.