Tanzania's President John Magufuli has ordered local authorities not to evict hawkers from urban centres, asking them instead to find commercially suitable areas for the traders.

In a speech, President Magufuli said hawkers must be relocated to commercially suitable areas within the town centres before they are evicted from places where they cause problems to the public.

“They should never be evicted if commercially viable premises for their businesses within city centres have not been prepared,” he said.

The traders, known locally as machinga, have largely refused to occupy a Tsh12 billion ($5.3 million) complex in Dar es Salaam that was meant to accommodate 10,000 of hawkers.

The Dar es Salaam City Council borrowed the money from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to build the five-storey Machinga Complex, which was completed in 2010, but could only accommodate 4,600 occupants and was too expensive for the majority.

Reject complex

Dar City Council’s manager in-charge of the Machinga Complex, Ananias Kamundu, told The EastAfrican that the building failed to attract hawkers because of the design.

“Hawkers sell their products on the streets where there are many passers-by. You can’t put them on the third floor. They won’t stay there,” he said. 

The Machinga Complex, located right at the junctions of busy Kawawa and Lindi roads, in the city centre currently has 1,900 occupants.

The City Council has failed to make scheduled repayments of the loan that has accumulated interest since 2010 with the overall debt now at TSh38 billion ($17 million) as of last month.

The Minister of State in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and  Local Government, George Simbachawene, earlier this month disbanded the board of directors of the complex for “failing to make the facility available to hawkers in the capital.”

A day after president’s directive, hawkers had spread their stuff almost all over the widths of the streets of Congo, Nyamwezi, Swahili, Sikukuu, Narung’ombe and Mchikichi in Kariakoo area Dar es Salaam making driving through the streets impossible.

Sources said government officials, particularly those in charge of the police and city militia were not happy with the directive.