Maputo relents

Rescinding a ban on street vending passed in late February, the government of Mozambique's capital has vowed that it is not against the city's 80,000 hawkers and roadside sellers, Mayor David Simango has announced.

Simango told vendors from the massive Estrela, Mandela 1 and 2, and Museu markets that he never intended to shut down all street trading and that his hope was only to stop people selling outside schools, hospitals and other sensitive establishments. "We are not against the activity of the informal sector, since we know that people are selling on the streets not out of pleasure, but as a question of need for their survival," the Mayor said. "But we have to find ways of developing informal trade without creating problems for everybody else."

Simango apparently wants vendors to clean the streets around their stalls twice a day (the current requirement is twice a week), to obey the rule requiring them to cease doing business by 9 pm, and to cease doing business on streets near schools and hospitals. While appropriate street cleaning may make sense, the ban on nighttime selling and the idea that vendors should voluntarily leave locations where demand is high seem counterintuitive and counterproductive.

AllAfrica has details.