On Street Vending

(Appeared in the Sunday Times)

Flushing out of street vendors – unfinished business

….. charcoal still being sold on the streets of Malawi

By Hastings Maloya

Finally the government has flushed vendors out of the streets in both urban and rural centers. This can be described as a success story, of course with respect to different people’s beliefs and understanding. But the fact remains that our towns and cities are slowly but steadily regaining the lost beauty and walking in the streets, is no longer a hassle.

Not long ago, our streets were full of people and activities, which resulted in lack of proper sanitation facilities and overcrowded conditions. This also posed a high risk of communicable diseases and caused additional pressure on management of waste. Our towns and cities were no longer a pleasant sight – yes they were full of waste. Cases of theft were numerous.

It is a changed situation now. Much as we are still looking forward to designated littering places and anticipating that refuse collection become order of the day, it is still a situation worth applause.

However, when the whole exercise was starting not many people believed it would succeed. Prophets of doom indicated that the government was starting a battle that it was ready to lose. The vendors themselves had indicated that come rain or sunshine, they wont move from the streets. The government used available legal instruments and finally everybody has acknowledged that street vending is illegal. So, no more street vending! This is government.

But now, wait a minute. Why is charcoal still being sold on the streets of Malawi? Is this not street vending?

Driving along the newly christened Robert Mugabe Highway, it is a terrible sight of the hundreds of charcoal bags that are seeing their way into the city. The state of affairs on the Zalewa road is not worth mentioning. It has been said enough. And along the Salima road the situation is the same. How about what seems to be a proper charcoal marketplace at the Machinjiri Turn–off on the Chileka road in Blantyre? Area 23 in Lilongwe. It is all over Malawi and it seems no-body cares. One wonders again if there has been a thought of the source for the charcoal.

But do we need to stress that charcoal production and sell is illegal in Malawi? As, it has been said before Malawi has viable legislation that lacks enforcement. Section 81 of Malawi’s Forest Act of 1987 reads: “No person shall make or sell charcoal from indigenous timber or tree except pursuant to a licence issued under this section.” And Malawians are yet to know whether any of the charcoal producers in Malawi has a licence and whether the licences are checked as is the case with driving licences by our traffic police.

And section 82 of the same Act reads “No person shall engage in commercial processing of any wood or forest produce without a permit. Again, Malawians need to be told whether any of the charcoal business people have permit to carry out their businesses. It is very unfortunate that illegal indigenous timber from forest reserves and customary areas are too common on our streets and the trend is going on without control.

The major reason for the worsening environmental damage in Malawi is therefore not the absence of legislation but laxity in the implementation and enforcement of policies, legislation and strategies by responsible Ministries and Departments.

In December 2005, a Coalition of Environmental NGOs in Malawi, cried through its press release that the country lost 2,501,571 ha. of both indigenous and plantation forests between 1972-1992 and much higher values after this period resulting in Malawi having a deforestation rate of 3.5%, the highest in the SADC Region.

The Coalition observed that between 1992 - 2005, charcoal production and trade was intensified in Malawi; where 140,000 ton/year of charcoal and about so many tons of firewood is was traded informally with Government deriving no revenue from this big trade.

“It requires no emphasis that enforcement and implementation of legislation, policies and regulations is primarily a responsibility of Government. There is need therefore, to enforce the Forestry Act and regulate charcoal production and selling. Courts should also be asked to impose heavy penalties on cases of encroachment, and illegal charcoal trade, as provided for in the law”, said the Coalition in the release.

While everybody agrees that street vending is illegal, why cant the government come in at this moment and save our trees by flushing charcoal sellers from the streets? We may lose an opportunity here. Actually production of charcoal in Malawi is far beyond demand and that is why we have piles and piles of charcoal on the streets. This is totally an illegal business.

Government MUST treat and view the environment and its associated natural resources and wildlife as economic goods; and come up with proper valuation of these assets including introduction of taxes, licenses and charges for the use. It would also be imperative to encourage farmers, the private sector and institutions of higher learning to take natural resource management as a business

Or should we suggest that all those that lost out on street vending should venture into charcoal business? Seems its acceptable.

…..ends