Masaka vendors defy municipal council, refuse to vacate streets
Defiant. A fruit vendor waits for customers on Edward Avenue in Masaka Town yesterday. PHOTO BY MALIK FAHAD JJINGO
What you need to know:
- Concern. The vendors argue that they pay daily dues to the municipal enforcement officers to cater for services such as cleaning. They wonder why they are being evicted.
Vendors in Masaka Town have defied a directive by municipal authorities to vacate the streets in a bid to clean them up in readiness for the city status.
In August this year, the municipal authorities gave an ultimatum of two weeks to roadside vendors operating on key streets of the town to relocate to less busy streets.
The vendors were ordered to leave streets such as Elgin, Edward Avenue, Victoria and Mawogola, among other streets in the town.
However, two months later, the vendors are still operating on the streets claiming that the areas where municipal council authorities had suggested to relocate them have never been worked upon.
“The said corridors where the municipal council plans to relocate us are too dirty. They are also too dark at night yet most of our work is done during night hours,” Mr Andrew Mwanje, a chapatti dealer and one of the affected vendors, decried during an interview on Tuesday.
The vendors, who are supposed to vacate the streets, include those selling chips, fried fish, fruits, vegetables, shoes and clothes, among other items. At least 200 vendors operate on Masaka streets at night, but the number rises to about 500 during day time.
The vendors wonder why they are being evicted from the streets yet they pay daily dues to the municipal enforcement officers to cater for services such as cleaning.
Mr John Behangane, the Masaka Town clerk, insists that the vendors have to leave the streets because they make them filthy.
“We have not abandoned our earlier plan, the vendors should better secure space in the central market which is being constructed to avoid inconveniences of being evicted,” he said.
He revealed that they are in the process of getting a temporary place where to relocate all vendors if they are not interested in operating in the corridors where they were ordered to go.
Despite a presidential directive banning daily levies on informal businesses, some unscrupulous revenue collectors in Masaka Town have continued to ask for daily dues from vendors. The vendors claim those who collect dues from them, especially at night, do not issue receipts to acknowledge receipt of money but rather give them small chits to show that they have cleared.
The vendors claim they pay a daily fee of between Shs500 and Shs1,000 depending on one’s business.
