Very often, street vendors are hit by speeding vehicles or narrowly avoid traffic accidents with serious injuries while habitually trying to sell their goods by dashing across busy streets to approach potential customers. This is a common sight on our busy streets, markets or alongside roads. This highlights the growing danger of illegal street trading, which continues to put the lives of vendors, motorists and pedestrians at risk. 

However, street trading in the middle of busy roads or on sidewalks is not only illegal but also extremely dangerous.

Admittedly, street vendors are a significant part of the economy in Namibia. Their income supports several families and sustains their livelihoods. 

Street vending, as a part of the informal sector, is a common practice in many towns and cities across the country. According to the International Labour Organisation (2018), 61% of global employment in Africa is in the informal sector, and almost 86% of employment is informal. As such, street vendors contribute significantly to the reduction of poverty and unemployment.

They provide cost-effective goods to low-income and middle-class consumers. The vendors are compelled into the informal sector by a lack of employment and poverty. 

In a country like ours, where the unemployment rate is over 36.9 % (2023), according to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), the informal economy provides a lifeline for countless families who are unable to find employment in the formal sector.

Ironically, vendors are often regarded as a public nuisance. 

They are accused of depriving pedestrians of their space, causing traffic jams, and having links with anti-social activities.

Challenges

The issues facing street vendors are complex, often raising questions about the legal framework and how they can be empowered to work in safer, more profitable conditions.

Street vending by-laws can often be confusing, and permits can be difficult to obtain from local government offices, leaving most street vendors exposed to evictions, harassment, encounters with the police, violent incidents, dangers of passing vehicles, confiscation of their goods, threats by criminals and permit fees to trade in certain areas only.

They are also somewhat excluded from urban spaces under zoning regulations, as they are apparently not recognised as part of the modern urban landscape.

Risks

Dangers associated with street vendors on the roadside include occupational health hazards and potential safety risks for both vendors and customers. 

For customers, the risks can include potential traffic accidents, health concerns from food and safety issues related to unregulated vending activities. Vendors can cause traffic problems, and pedestrians may face safety risks when navigating busy areas with street stalls.

Additionally, street vendors can pose safety risks due to traffic congestion, reduced pedestrian space and unpredictable behaviour, while also raising road safety concerns for vendors, including the risk of being hit by vehicles.

The presence of vendors and their customers can narrow walkways, reducing the space available for pedestrians and particularly increasing the risk of collisions. 

Vendors are more prone to riskier behaviour, such as jaywalking, and may not always follow traffic rules, increasing overall danger. Thus, road safety measures must account for the vulnerability of pedestrians who sometimes disregard traffic laws. Additionally, vendors should adopt personal risk-reduction behaviours, such as avoiding the middle of the road.

Solutions

To enforce some kind of proactive measures and advance solutions, police and local authorities should introduce a combination of proper infrastructure, clear regulations and integrated planning. This can be done by designing multi-use sidewalks, implementing traffic calming measures, rigid traffic patrols and relocating vendors to safer places and designated markets.

Alternatively, vendors could be separated from road intersections and traffic lanes.

In addition, strenuous measures to separate vendors from moving traffic, such as designing specific vending zones or build barriers, should be implemented. 

Against this backdrop, road traffic safety is important for regulating the flow of vehicles and pedestrians to prevent accidents, ensure safety as well as minimise injuries and fatalities on our roads. The concept of social justice is relevant to the challenges facing street vendors.

This not only means equal rights, opportunities and fair treatment for all, but also recognises the persistent income inequality and extreme poverty as injustice in our society. 

Although street vending is not inherently a social problem, its management and the conditions surrounding it can create social problems for both vendors and the public.

It is, therefore, important that law enforcement addresses socioeconomic problems through a community-oriented approach that includes partnering with community leaders to identify needs, design solutions and implement programmes that enhance the community’s well-being. 

Local authorities must make strenuous efforts to strike a balance or achieve a state in which street vendors and road traffic safety are equally important in society, enabling all to coexist in a relatively orderly fashion under rigid supervision and management. 

However, balancing the economic and social benefits of street vending with the need for safe pedestrian and vehicle movement is a complex challenge that requires careful planning.

*Maj. Gen. (RTD) J. B Tjivikua is a criminal intelligence analyst.