Cracking down on African street vendors

You can't do that hereRUNNING away is part of life, explains Meddy Sserwadda, eyeing the road. Each morning he buys belts from a market in central Kampala, the capital of Uganda, selling them on a downtown street for a small profit. He works without a licence'the city government has stopped issuing them'and flees when enforcement officers approach. 'They don't want us to make the city dirty,' he says, crouched beside some fugitive mango-sellers. Officials have twice confiscated his goods. His cousin, who is also a street vendor, has spent time in prison.For Mr Sserwadda, and many others in Africa, street vending is a means of survival. But city authorities see it as an eyesore, a nuisance and a threat. Those in Lagos, in Nigeria, try to ban it entirely with a thuggish unit called 'Kick Against Indiscipline', which mostly seems to kick small traders. In Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, they try to wash away vendors with water cannon. In Kampala, which launched a fresh crackdown in October, arrested traders are swiftly churned through a city court. Most cannot afford to hire a lawyer or pay fines of up to 600,000...Continue reading
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