Kasungu vendors boycott taxes over poor security

Kasungu vendors who are plying their businesses in the district main market  on Thursday agreed to stop paying market fee over the council failure to provide security in their business area.

The vendors who said the market has been operating without security for almost seven months said they have been engaging with the council officials on the matter but it yielded nothing.

Chairperson for the vendors, Peterson Black told Nyasa Times that thieves have been stealing their properties when they knockoff due to lack of security personnel at the market.

He also revealed that the council is failing to provide bins as well as personal protective equipment.

The vendors who stormed the council offices in the morning hours of Thursday, threatened to manhandle council’s tax collectors especially if they come to their places.

“It seems the council does care about our welfare. What they only want to deep into our pockets in the name of market fee. Why should we pay the market fee if the council is failing to protect our  properties here?” he wondered.

Reacting to the development, Kasungu Mayor, Socrates Jere said the vendors’ ignorant especially on duties of the council in the market places is the  root cause of the noise.

Jere said the council duty is not to protect vendors’ properties but the market structures.

According to Jere, vendors can employ their own security personnel especially if they think their business properties are not safe.

“Vendors are supposed to employ their own security personnel. Our duty as council is to protect our properties not theirs,” he disclose.

The mayor disclosed that the council has arranged a workshop where they equip the vendor’s committee about the duties of the council in market places.