Lungu addresses plight of street traders

President Edgar Lungu has advised civic authorities to find alternative trading spaces before removing street vendors. A report on the allAfrica site notes that this follows the death of a female street vendor who was involved in a scuffle with Kitwe police after being accused of trading in an unauthorised area in the CBD last month. ‘We are in government to protect lives and not to kill. Actually, I cried,’ he told a delegation of traders and civic leaders at the opening of a market in Kitwe. Lungu added that there were laws regarding the formation of boards to supervise street vendors. Ironically, it was an arson attack on a Lusaka market two weeks ago that prompted Lungu to implement emergency rule, notes Legalbrief. He further claims that opposition parties were behind a string of arson attacks intended 'to create terror’.