Last week, at least one person was killed, three injured and more than 130 arrested after riots along some Mwanza City streets.
The riots involved small street business owners (known as machinga in Swahili or street hawkers in English), shop owners and city police.
The riots supposedly began because the street business owners were being told to stop vending and leave certain areas by one group of city council members backed by the police, and then were told by another group of city council members to continue vending.
During the riots, street business owners clashed violently with police, which left property and vehicles damaged and people dead, injured or generally unsettled.
Post riots, the Mwanza City Mayor claimed he was not informed about the city council’s intention to vacate some of the streets where the street business owners operated. At the same time, the Municipal Director’s office claimed to have informed all relevant parties about the planned evacuation of small businesses.
Further reports exist; about the ownership of arms that killed people, about the potential political influence on the whole event and most especially about who is to blame between the city officials, the street business owners, the shop owners and the police.
But as The Citizen mentions, this is an old problem in Tanzania and “could also be seen as an issue of poor urban planning”. Street vending is part of Tanzanian urban culture now; those involved in city planning throughout the country need to come to terms with that.
Although cities like Mwanza and Dar-es-Salaam have tried to create specific spaces outside the city centers for machinga to operate, over time these plans have failed and small stands or even mobile shops continue to persist within the centers.
This should tell city officials two things:
- There is money to be made on the streets where machinga operate, whether its selling phone vouchers, newspapers, car parts, foods or apparel.
- The machinga are not involved in the decision-making and policies of the city officials.
So, do you think that increased efforts to remove machinga from certain areas in Tanzania will make things better for everyone?
If you think they will make things better, how and why do you think so? If not, what would you propose the city officials did to make the process less violent and more efficient for business?
More coverage and opinions from The Citizen:
- 7th July 2011: One feared dead as hawkers, askaris clash
- 10th July 2011: Mwanza needs to address the ‘machinga’ question urgently
- 12th July 2011: TANU’s birthday and hawker riots
Machinga complexes with proper facilities and security around the cities will sort out this problem, on top of that city authorities would be collecting their taxes and customers exercising their purchasing power.
@dd-m Hasn’t that been tried already? Besides, don’t you think the small-business owners will find “corner” markets no matter how many complexes are built?
@ak, it has been tried, one of the things I learned UK is organisation, in TZ we don’t emphasize on this crucial aspect, we have to be organised in whatever we do, na sio kukurupuka tu.
Waliwaweka wamachinga pale, wakawawekea kodi alfu sitini (ambayo wamepunguza nakua alfu 10!), Nafikiri pia wahusika pale machinga complex wanaitaji na kukubali kuchaji wamachinga kwa siku, kwa wiki na ofcourse kwa mwezi, kumbuka huyu mmachinga anaishi na upatikanaji wa hela kwa siku baada ya siku na wao huwa wanapewa mtaji wa vitu na matajiri (wengi wao wadosi!).
Pia kukodisha na upatikanaji wa hizo frames ulikua wa mizengwe ile mbaya, nimeona na kuhakiki wahusika wa frames wakitaka rushwa kwa wamachinga! Sasa mkuu mmachinga ana hela gani ya rushwa? tena wengi wao nimesikia wakiwa hawajapata chochote mchana huwa wanageuka vibaka usiku, wawili watatu waliuliwa mitaa ya tegeta,bunju na kunduchi!
Vile vile aple machinga complez kulikua hakuna plan ya kuwaelekeza wananchi wawe wanamwagika pale ( ambayo ndio hio ya kuwachaji wamachinga kwa siku au wiki, wateja watakuja tu! Kwa kweli hakukuwa na plans za mwanzo, katikati wala mbali na za baadae (kama kawaida yetu!).
Ukichanganya uhaba wa basic facilities kama umeme, maji, vyoo, ulinzi kwa wateja n.k.
Sasa mkuu, hata tujenge mijengo mingapi ya wamachinga, itakua bure kama hatutajiandaa na kuangalia mambo kama hayo niliotaja.
Here is an article from the Citizen on street vendors clashing with police in Ubungo yesterday.
Two excerpts:
“Hundreds of vendors operate at Ubungo…The area has in recent years become a magnet for vendors scrambling to take advantage of the tens of thousands of people using the daladala and long-distance bus terminals daily.”
“Some of the vendors said they were protesting against the eviction because Dar es Salaam authorities had allocated to them trading areas that had no customers.”