Chipata Municipal Council has continued pouncing on illegal street vendors confiscating their merchandise.
A combined team of Zambia Police and Council officers on Friday pounced on women selling vegetables at Great East Mall, who were caught by surprise.
And Caritas Chipata has challenged the local authority on the system it is using to rid the streets of the illegal traders.
Caritas Chipata Coordinator for Justice and Peace John Mthaziko Zulu says that the removal of the vendors should be handled with maximum care and reasonably.
He says that the local authority should be aware that during the time the PF, Patriotic Front Party was in opposition, it promised to find street vendors alternative trading places in markets and empower them with capital.
Mr. Zulu says that it would therefore, be wrong for the council to remove the vendors simply because Chipata is about to be declared a city.
He has emphasised that the vendors should only be removed because the council has created enough trading spaces with government playing its part of empowering them financially and creating employment.
Mr. Zulu has charged that although street vending is illegal, politicians should be made to account for their campaign promises.