By Ralph Sesay
Despite the several strides taken by the Iron Lady of the Municipality to curb the City of filth, with support from the new government, Freetown remains hunted with the perennial problem of street trading.
Almost all the major streets in Freetown have been overtaken with goods and wares sold by petty traders. Freetown motorists and pedestrians are largely deprived of moving freely across the streets of Freetown. They have to look out for local carts (Omolankeys), three wheeled motor cycles (Kekeh’s) and wares of rude, lousy and uncouth petty traders.
Street traders even challenge licensed motor vehicle owners plying the narrow streets of Freetown. This is because they have developed the notion over the years that vehicles should not ply the streets at all.
Motorists are now conditioned while driving along these streets. They need to be extremely careful so as not to tread on wares and goods placed in the middle of the streets. What has heightened the problem is the fact that the Freetown City Council collects dues from these lawless traders, which in actual sense means legitimizing their stay in these streets.
From all indications Freetown has a local administration that is hugely controlled by the main opposition All People’s Congress. Their task is to manage municipal issues under the supervision of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
Since the March, 2018 elections, we have not seen much around curbing the street trading menace except for the usual action of the Council, which involves demarcating lines where traders are expected to stop with the wares. This has proved to be a very unsustainable solution to the menace and the problem continues unabated.
Recent moves by the Freetown Municipality to create a hub at Sibthorpe Street in the Central Business District, wherein nine streets within the city will be relocated, have not worked. Residents of the area (Sibthorpe Street) have protested against the Mayor’s decision to relocate street traders to this residential area against the backdrop that this will create several inconveniences for them.
Other options like relocating the traders to the Sewa Grounds have also not worked, because those facilities are going to be rented to more organized and wealthy traders. In which case, the issue of petty trading will continue unabated.
The New Direction Government, during the March 2018 elections campaign, promised solving the menace, which largely resulted to them being elected into office. But as usual, the government has failed to act largely because of fears that the bulk of the petty traders would vote against them in subsequent elections.
The issue of petty trading was a very critical issue around the March, 2018 elections. Petty traders have supported the then ruling APC hugely because they have confidence that with the APC they will continue to stay in the streets. They have similarly expressed fears that an SLPP win will throw them away from the streets. But now that the SLPP has won they are scared to enforce the rules and ensure Freetown regained its beauty once again.
Although one would argue that the opposition controls the city and it is their business to deal with cleaning matters, but how about the central government’s current role in the Saturday Cleaning exercise?
The central government has an overarching role to nip in the bud any issue that they think has got the tendency to discomfort people. Is it that the issue of street trading is not a priority for the government? Or they are scared of continuing to lose Freetown to the APC if they decide to tackle the street trading menace?
In his inaugural speech, the President vowed to fight lawlessness and street trading. Currently the lawlessness confronts the development and rebranding of Freetown.
The current efforts at cleaning the city, which is gaining grounds, is increasingly being challenged by the issue of street trading as traders in various streets across the Central Business District continue to pour huge garbage in these streets on a daily basis.
It is no doubt that Freetown will continue to be hunted by street trading. When will this end remains is a mystery.
The Unending Street Trading Menace Still Hunting Freetown
