By Kabukabu Kawanambulu Ikwueme
In recent years, there has been a wave of construction, with shopping malls becoming part of the landscape in Zambia and more in the planning phase. For shoppers who like a bit of retail therapy and job seekers looking for employment,shopping malls have been a welcome sight. The same can not be said of those in the informal sector – market traders – who fear that their live hoods may be under threat as consumers flock to theshopping malls , particularly during this season when most markets are literally flooded with rain water. Doing business in most markets across the country is a formidable challenge at any given time.
The informal sector predominantly found in markets in the sprawling metropolis of Zambian towns, however, provides more employment to a larger segment of the population. Despite this, not much has been done to help improve the working conditions of people in this sector. The structures that have been put in place over the years, are not sufficient to allow businesses to thrive in most markets. It defies logic to expect market traders to continue selling their merchandise in their designated trading areas – with poor drainage – putting their health and that of their customers at risk. This is clearly one of the reasons why most traders engage in curb side hawking, (street vending) forced to sale on the streets.
More needs to be done to help transform the entrepreneurial activities carried out in markets into viable businesses, fully integrated into mainstream economic life. From the look of things, the ruling class has no concept of what life is like for people in the informal sector, who have been systematically dispossessed of the opportunity to have decent work and dignity as human beings. At present, approximately 50% or more of Zambia’s population work in the informal sector. A major overhaul is required to support this sector which generates much needed employment, in a country where job creation programmes are scarce. As more and more people remain excluded from the security of waged or salaried employment, the number of workers in informal employment will rise.
Floods in the Kamwala second class trading area. Shoppers have to wear gumboots or wade in the pools of water to access shops
By any law of social science, the present system that allows the vast majority of the population to live and work in sub-human conditions should have disintegrated a while ago. Some how, the matrix of social and economic connections that people have managed to weave independent of the government, ensure most people get food and shelter. Amid the ruins, 20% of Zambians are living fabulously wealthy lives while the remaining 80% just manage to get by. At least 95% of workers in the informal sector still do not earn enough to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
The need to develop Zambia’s infrastructure to ensure meaningful economic growth takes place, is often talked about but almost never implemented. It’s disheartening to see the informal sector which is part of the rhythm of urban life and provides an insight into our country’s culture, food, smells and sounds being neglected. The state of Zambia’s flooded markets where consumers have to swim to get there, clearly say quite a bit about the management of revenue being collected fromthe market traders and tax payers as a whole. The traditional ways of earning a living in the informal sector need to be protected and supported particularly at a time when this sector plays an important role in providing employment.
Shopping malls have certainly given our cities a facelift but nothing compares to the African-ness of haggling in the market and the camaraderie that goes on as people interact. Our markets need to be places we can take pride in and entice tourists to visit, for a taste of our culture. In Africa, “when you visit a town and have not visitedthe market, you have not really visited the town.”
