Local Government Minister Richard Chimwendo Banda has expressed worry with a surge in cases of illegal vending in the country’s major cities.
Chimwendo was speaking when he presided over the first ever Lilongwe City Summit which the Lilongwe City council hosted on Wednesday.
Addressing delegates that converged for the summit, Chimwendo said it is worrisome that despite government making strides to deal away with illegal vending, some traders are still plying their trade in undesignated areas.
“I move around the city almost every day and it pains me to see traders plying their trade anywhere. Whenever we undertake an operation to remove these vendors you see them coming back just after 2 or 3 days,” said Chimwendo.
Chimwendo has since called upon the Malawi Police Service to intensify operations to see to it that no vendor is plying their trade from an undesignated area.
“The police service is doing a good job so far but we need to intensify the operations so that we deal away with this once and for all”, said Chimwendo.
And in his remarks Mayor for Lilongwe City Richard Banda said he believes the summit will come with solutions to problems affecting effective service delivery by the council.
“We thought of organising this summit so that we can brainstorm together on how best to improve our capital city and it is my hope and belief that these delegates here will come up with possible solutions on how we can improve our capital city”, said Banda.
The summit which was held under the theme: my city my responsibility, together building the city we want drew together over 200 delegates from various sectors.
