McKenzie calls for education on upholding law in vending practices
Published:Monday | April 15, 2024 | 12:07 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
LOCAL GOVERNMENT Minister Desmond McKenzie has issued a call to the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) to educate residents, including those who work as vendors, on the importance of upholding law and order by refusing to buy or sell goods in illegal spaces.
Addressing last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the StJMC, McKenzie stressed that the ongoing restoration work at Montego Bay’s Charles Gordon Market will be pointless if vendors persist in not using the vending space as required.
“We are spending in excess of $100 million to renovate the Charles Gordon Market, to correct the drainage problems in the market, and the work has started already. It cannot be that you spend this amount of money and at the end of the day the market is empty, you can’t get access to the road, because vendors find it more convenient to sell on the road,” McKenzie said starkly.
“We have to use public persuasion; we have to educate our vendors. Right now, the Social Development Commission is working on a programme that we will roll out to engage vendors in all the parishes across Jamaica, but we cannot operate a municipality when law and order, which is one of our main portfolios, is being eroded,” McKenzie added.
“So, I am urging councillors to engage the people in your divisions who are vendors, and to even urge the shoppers not to engage with those who are selling in areas that are not designated for vending.”
The $100-million price tag for the Charles Gordon Market’s renovation work, of which its first phase began in 2023, is an increase over the $60 million which McKenzie had pledged to spend in 2021, to address the concerns raised by vendors about the facility over the years. Those concerns include sanitary conditions, infrastructure problems, and security issues.
McKenzie also shared with Thursday’s meeting that the condition of markets across Jamaica, and how those facilities are treated by the vendors who use them, will be among the topics of concern that he intends to raise during his upcoming contribution to the Sectoral Debate.
“There is one area that, in my Sectoral presentation, I will be speaking extensively on and making some announcements, and that is markets. Our markets in Jamaica, for many years, have deteriorated, as 98 per cent of our markets are over 100 years old. We have to look at now, whether or not the present method of how we operate markets in a modern age, if that is the way for us to go,” said McKenzie.
“While we have responsibility for the markets, there is also that sector of persons who operate within the markets who are not prepared to abide by the rules and the regulations. Whenever you try to enforce, the argument comes that these are poor people trying to make a livelihood, and the mayor and the councillors are wicked and the municipal police officers are wicked because they are trying to maintain public order,” McKenzie added.
In January this year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that a special programme for the improvement of markets in towns across Jamaica would be announced as part of the next National Budget, and that his administration would emphasise the improvement of market facilities over the next few months.