Malawi bans importation and sale of second-hand underwear: Mixed reaction
Market traders in Malawi will be banned from selling second-hand underwear and other items, a move which has received mixed reactions as some traders fear this will negatively impact their economic livelihoods.
The decision by the Malawi government to impose a ban on the importation of secondhand underwears is in line with the new Control of Goods Act, which aims to restrict imports and encourage local manufacturing.
The Minister of Trade, Sosten Gwengwe, said in Lilongwe on Wednesday that following the enactment of the Act, all import and export permits have been revoked and new ones will be issued in respect of the new trade regime.
The licences that were under the previous regime expired on 24 July after the gazette of the new law.
Government contends that used pants – and other second-hand goods like handkerchiefs and mattresses – are unhygienic and could pose a health hazard.
The minister said the new law challenges local industry to produce the products that need not to be imported like tooth picks and vegetables.
Gwengwe has disclosed that the traders will be able to get new permits by 7 August 2020.
However, vendors who have been surviving on sale of secondhand underwear and related items have expressed fear this will have a negative impact on their economic activities.
“We will certainly be affected because those items were selling faster because of their cheaper prices. And this helped us survive in town,” said John Banda, a vendor at the Lilongwe Flea Market.
Others have said government has hastened in effecting the Act, arguing Malawi does not have the machinery and expertise to have locally-products user-friendly products.
“Just because Chakwera has said those ministers who will not deliver will be removed doesn’t mean that you present dreams in your ministry and you think Malawians will buy your crude hallucinations. Malawi to get to a stage where it can be called an industrial entity, time and good resource utilisation need to be applied. If you think producing toothpicks will involve scraping bamboos with knives or razor blades, then forget it Mr. Gwengwe. Anduna, serious?” a social media user writing under the name Marcus Garvey asked.
Abiti Chezunana, another market trader, defended the secondhand business.
“Second-hand underwear and other clothes we sell are better quality than new undies in the stores,” she said.
She admitted that some of the imported underwear was stained but said customers rummage through the piles and inspect goods before buying.
Second-hand clothing is often referred to as ‘Kaunjika’.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
This is a brilliant idea. Kaunjika is killing our textile industry and these clothes are reservoirs of corna! The President is being a leader here. There are so many questions I am asking about your leadership so far but on this one I agree totally! Ban them with effect from last year!l let’s develop our own way of developing our form of dressing. Let people come to Malawi to buy Malawi designs! Malawi textile! Let Malawians gain experience in running textile businesses! Start small and build up to become an entity! a brand! Excellent Mr President.
Let’s change our mind set Malawians. we need to think bigger than oneself! A country does not develop by you ammassing all the money! a Country develops by every one of you making the little you have grow and shae the services you install in your country! look after those services and the infrastructure! avoid foreigners taking advantage of us! Respect and care about each other genuinely we will get somewhere like that.
as a Malawian try your best nolt to always how to best torture the other person but habe enough confidence to allow them to develop fully as a person so that you can also benefit from their development as person and they can make use of your development. Change our mind set.
Kikkkkkk koma ziliko, mwasiya a Minister kuvala second hand Pants now? You can’t stop second hand clothes just because of Coronavirus! These Chinese they don’t make good Pants Sir, their pants are friends of Nyena and they attract too much Nsabwe. Oh God, inuyo tazigulani zanuzo, asiyeni a Malawi avale za second hand zo! Aaaaaaaa no! Osautsa nkwiyo pazinthu zopanda pake nanuso! Pants? A full Minister can just think of Pants?
Join the discussion…Gwengwe not only pants. Ban the whole kaunjika business. By allowing kaunjika in Malawi. You are exporting jobs. Go anywhere in the world they will not waste their hard earned forex on second hand cloth. It was mbuzi Bakili Muluzi who brought in kaunjika. Look at the textile industry now in Malawi it is finished because of kaunjika.
Bill ya mapanti ikufanana ndi ya ziphwisi. Koma zoona mpakana ma honorable kukakambira nkhaniyi ndi cholinga chopanga lamulo? UNDERWEAR ACT 2020.
Most of this goods are made out of material and cloth which we have to import as well. Things like elastic and most of the synthetic materials are not available and must be exported in the end it’s to costly! I doubt that the tailors and the industry around have a big benefit out of this!
It will result, that Chinese Dealers have their big benefit out of it, to the disadvantage of us Malawians.
Izooooo 1 million jobs ija yalepheleka. Gule kwawo gule kwawo kukasiya.
Sapato kkk mubananso??? kkkk Mabwana amaoneka ngati kuti kkkk
aletsa panti wa kaunjika osati wa nyuwani. Izi ndi zabwino nanga kumavala panti wovala kale. if this is okay for you bwerani mudzatenge anga ovalavala.
Chakwera, you are an idiot and a fool. You clearly know nothing about economics which is why you make decisions like a child.
enanu simuvetsa i think,anena underwear osati kaunjika wa zovala koma mapanti,matress,handkachief.please tavetsetsani busines ya kaunjika is still on
Gud move it is insulting that we are even importing tooth pick.
Even more insult that we are using already used under wear.
This nosense has to be stopped
Challenge is the locally manufacturerd will be unaffordable to an average malawian than the used imports. Mukufuna tizivara panti wachitenje? How much is the second hand underwear market worthy? Will the change have a significant positive impact on the economy? We are still a poor country we need to think of the majority. The quilted fabrics for a proper underwear is expensive that’s where the problem will be, we will still be importing the fabrics anyhow it’s even more expensive than the ratio of importing used underwear, per meter. For example a pair of brand new boxers with the right quilted fabric is pegged at 7000 to 12000 am not talking of the Chinese loose light fabric boxers that cost 2000 and are unreliable. On the other hand the used quality boxers cost a thousand akakhara ma panti aziwa ndiye even 40kwacha anatha kupezeka ndithu. And these are durable can still be used for years, the quilted fabric kapena titi okhuthara amathandiza kupupita thukuta takujaku, mphechepechemu munthu akayenda etc, ndiyekuti so ngati ulibe pelefumilu, kafungo kakumusi sikambeka. Koma ma panti agolura ma China AWA opera ngati net AWA nkumati panti. Letsani importation of meet and vegetables to boost local farming that will have a significant lacal capacity boost. Zamapantizo zilekeni tisamaganize kwambiri zamkabudura tingakathere kubedi. Timakokondani tonse alliance komanzamapantizo nzoseketsa zitayeni.
Boxer wa khanga kkkkkk whitex
Anduna mudziyamba mwafunsa kaye, or inu mumavala panti opangidwa muno? Do we have an underwear manufacturing company? This country is poor and if u ban second hand items tibweleranso way back to one party era where the whole village of 14000 people only a mfumu plus 10 luck families amavala nsapato za sofia kapena sikuna
Zakhala bwino tiyambedi kuvala ma pant azitenje KKKKK
Kodi ndiye kuti a DPP mumabvala ma pant a belo?⁵kukonda nsete za azungu. Ifetu timalima fodya ndi chimanga ndikupha makwacha nkumapita kunja kukagula ma galimoto ndi zobvala za makono. Mpaka kulilira pant ya pa kaunjika zoona. Kupanda nzeru. In this century..
The intent of banning is not really a health hazard issue but to promote local manufacturing and boost cotton farmers. There has never been any contagious disease in Malawi with its source being these used underwears and if any, it was not publicized.It is very sad to just selectively look at what people wear as a hazard. Look at what they eat also. People buy bad meat ( going rotten), bad fresh fish and dried fish without realizing. Look at our sanitation – pit latrines in the congested townships. Our resilient human bodies are exposed to these conditions and yet we live, surviving all the years passing by without complaints.Why should we only complain on underwears as if we eat them to be so an extreme hazard? Think twice; people buy these underwears with as little as K100 each.
Anduna mufuna anthu tidziyenda yotchera tchera kodi? Tima pulumukirapotu kuma pezekako ndi pant, pano tidzingo yenda ili pa free range tilasa nazo ana akuvala motiyambawa!
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Kkkkkkk zalowaso ndale
Disgusting. Does Malawi really sell used underwear? , OMG, I never thought a human being could buy someone’s used underwear. How pathetic and embarrassing. Please bun the entire used cloths businesses.
Eti, eti! Next some Malawians will be buying used condoms.👙
Besides everything let those second hand underwears get treated aswell (might bring viruses across) if selling prolongs
A kabwafu you comment like you actually live in Malawi. This actually shows that you haven’t been in the country for time immemorial. People have been wearing these underwear since 1994. Kumasuzumirako kumudzi pena
Ngamatama chabe a Kabwafu awa Ali mwa Mtsiriza mu. Ndipo a Kabwafu ma underwear a second hand ndiye kudya kwawo apa akufuna kuonetsa ngati akudabwa. Za ziii matama basi!
Uli kuti iweyo? Anthu osaona maiko.They are sold even in developed countries like UK and USA ndiye oa nyasa pano
Instead of banning there should be education about washing before wearing if we could afford to buy new underwear
There would be no market for the second hand underwear
Just like there is no one to buy them where they come from
Who wants to buy second hand if they can afford new ones
In other words, take away the money from these poor kaunjika sellers, and give it to rich manufacturers instead. Take a away self employed jobs from the sellers, and force them to work for new manufacturers. tiyeni nazo.
That’s what MCP knows. Does not like people doing small businesses.
seriously where in the world you hear people buying secondhand underwear very disgusting .
WELL DONE MINISTER
Ukakhala pansana panjovu usati kulibe mame
If one wishes to buy second hand underwear let him or her do so . All one has to do is wash thoroughly and sanitize with water and dettol. What government should focus is on street food that is sold which doesn’t look too hygienic.
This is long overdue , second hand underwear could have been banned 10years ago, this is indeed unhygienic.
Kudos minister, most of the people start wearing them b4 even washing them which is bad cause it might be someone who was wearing it suffers from STI .
For hygienic reasons it’s viable .
I wish if there was a way to say no comment without writing.
Paul Kagame style 💪🏾🇲🇼
Instead of creating jobs, this clueless government is busy killing people’s sources of income. Many Malawians rely on such businesses for survival.
Nanu inu musakhale ngat mutu wanu sukugwila ntchito isaaaa….. Zopusazoo…
MCP never allowed kaunjika in this country. It also suffocated small and medium businesses. It was the UDF and DPP that believed in small and medium businesses. People VOTED for CHANGE. They have it now. Let no one complain. In fact, the so-called companies to be making new clothes will be owned by MCP members.
Those who are complaining are dpp and udf, they did not vote for change anyway, ife a Tonse who voted for the change are happy with the ban. Ma cadet kuzolowera zopusa.
Lets not be short-sighted…. these second-hand undergarments are a serious health hazard. Lets produce quality products locally and save our women from importing funny sicknesses arising from using these second-hand items.
Who told you that they only sell women’s undergarments.
1 million jobs, I like it. Chweeeeeeeeee.
Miss gwengwe akuti chiyani kodi?
Think of human dignity and respect. Who in the world can find pleasure in wearing a second hand underwear? Ndi umphawi umachititsa but it can be changed. Let us challenge our manufacturers to make our own new ones for the sake of our respect. Tisamadzinyoze ndi zinthu zozizila ngati zimenezi. Umphawiwo udabwerera a Malawi kodi? The defenders of second hand underwear selling are only thinking of the money they make osati ulemelero wa munthu.
Typical clueless government. They don’t know what to do with the authority they have.
Disgusting that it was every allowed in the first place.
Palibe zolowesa ndale apa amalawi munakhala bwanji kodi …nkhani ndiya ukhondo mutha kuyamba kusoka zimenezo muzigulisa basitu
Ban all second hand clothes and remove levies and taxes on textile manufactures in the county
Generally the problem with Malawians is that they want to ban stuff but they don’t have a plan B
Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world now the Tonse Alliance in government has Malawi ceased to be the poorest Nation in the world .The answer is no Imposing restrictions to burn second hand clothes is good but the timing is wrong .Let investors come and start manufacturing underwerars and sell them at reasonable prices affordable by poor Malawians until then the burn can be effected.The truth is a very big percentage of Malawians are poor and mist of them especially in the village they don’t wear underwears they use short tattered old trousers .