P.M. now wants vendors away from footpaths

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has back-tracked on his support for street vendors who are selling their goods on footpaths around Apia because that was wrong.

This time he is kicking them out of the footpaths saying he is now doing what is right.

He told Radio 2AP on Thursday that in the past he was sympathetic with them which was what caused him to do the wrong thing.

“They came to me for help and I felt sorry for them,” Tuilaepa said. “I didn’t know that I was helping them do what was wrong, but what the government workers are now doing is what should be done."

Said Tuilaepa:“It was my love for them that caused me to support what was wrong.”

This time Tuilaepa reminds that roads are made for cars, footpaths are meant for people to walk on, and the market is where people sell their goods.

These comments of his are a marked contrast to his stand in February last year when he scolded police officers for chasing away street vendors selling goods on footpaths.

He said then that the police officers should concentrate on other important things “and find something better to do” than chase street vendors away.

In response, the Assistant Police Commissioner at the time, Leaupepe Fatu Pula, said it was clear under the Police Offences Act that people could sell their goods on the footpaths provided they paid the required permits and business licenses.

However, just this week the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E.), issued a warning to those people who have set up tents adjacent to the Accident Compensation Corporation (A.C.C.) Building, to remove them.

M.N.R.E. Chief Executive Officer Suluimalo Amataga Penaia, said the move was a part of the beautification of Apia programme in preparation for the Small Island Developing States (S.I.D.S.) Conference, scheduled for September.

He pointed out that keeping public areas clean was the responsibility of the Ministry, and added:

“Already they've been assigned areas they can go to sell their goods and yet they are going wherever they please."

“We don’t want them to go all over the place,"

he said. "And if you look at the tents, they are very untidy and they reflect (badly on) Samoa."

Suluimalo explained: “That is why we are enforcing them to move away from these areas.

Otherwise they can can (even go as far as set up their stalls) in front of the Government Building.”

However, it appears that Tuilaepa's mind is made up.

He says when the Fugalei Market is completed that is when the Police should start chasing vendors away from the footapaths in accordance with the law.

He adds: “At the moment the law is enforced, and then it’s stopped because of this love, this love that makes things go wrong."

“But once the market is completed, the market will be used, the roads are for cars, the footpaths are for people to walk on, and the market is for vendors to sell their goods."