Mzuzu vendors boycott market fees for 2 months

Mzuzu City Council (MCC) needs to improve service delivery and law enforcement to regain the confidence of businesspeople who have boycotted market fees, Malawi News Agency (Mana) has learnt.

The council has lost thousands of kwacha as traders stopped paying the fees two months ago in protest to continued illegal vending.

The businesspersons at Mzuzu Main Market embarked on the boycott due to the council’s failure to eliminate illegal vending.

They have they would only start paying the daily fees when the council takes action against the widespread vendors in various markets.

In an interview, MCC public relations officer Karen Msiska said the council is losing “a lot of revenue”.

However, he did not disclose how much revenue the council has lost by keeping vendors on the loose.

“The council relies on locally generated revenue for its operations and salaries as well as utilities bills and collection of waste.

Out of 14 sections of the market, nine are not paying market fees,” said Msiska.

The council stopped deploying police officers to eject the vendors in undesignated areas.

Msiska described it as costly, saying the council was spending K580 000 a day in form of allowances for the police officers and other logistics. —Malawi News Agency