Hepatitis E hits Ondangwa

The town council of Ondangwa is moving all street vendors to the town's open markets in its fight against a hepatitis E outbreak.

The health ministry has announced that 24 cases of the disease were reported in the region from April to July, of which 12 were in Ondangwa.

The Ondangwa town council has already started removing vendors trading in the town centre around the Shoprite and Pick n Pay complexes.

Council spokesperson Petrina Shitalangaho told Namibian Sun that the council had decided at the beginning of this month to move all street vendors to the open markets.

“We are not chasing them away, but we are concerned about the health and safety of the town. They were informed timeously to move to more suitable places to conduct business and the council passed a resolution to that effect,” Shitalangaho said.

“There is no good hygiene where they are operating and the majority of them were operating in danger zones and they were not safe. Some were operating in the road reserve.”

Shitalangaho said it was unsafe for the vendors and their customers to do business next to the busy road.

She said the vendors were being moved to the ABC and Ondjondjo open markets.

The council yesterday held a meeting with the vendors to explain the move to them.

“Apart from their safety we also informed them that we are concerned about the health of the products they are selling and of their customers,” she said.

The vendors insisted that they wanted to trade in a business area and said the two open markets were already overcrowded and had no space for them.

Shitalangaho replied that a new open market would be established in this financial year.

ILENI NANDJATO