lockdown!

Zambian riot police have occupied Lusaka to prevent street vendors from selling goods, The Nation reports.

Almost all streets of the Zambian capital, Lusaka, have a multitude of vendors selling all sorts of goods making it difficult for people to move on the streets or enter shops. The vendors have even covered some lanes on main streets with their commodities. The vendors also sell their goods on the pathways, corridors of shops even entrances to shops. Some shop owners are believed to be giving some of their goods to street vendors to be selling for them outside their shops because buyers opt to purchase goods from the streets instead of shops because the entrances are blocked by vendors.

Just wondering what is so objectionable about street sellers that they have to be met with such force, and treated as if they were violent gangbangers.