Angola has banned the street sale of live animals, green meat, smoked meat and edible offal, medicines, insecticides, rodenticides, medicinal plants and herbs, furniture, machinery and electrical utensils, alcoholic beverages, fuel and building materials.
The measure is set out in the Regulation of the Law on the Organization, Exercise and Operation of Street Trading, Fairground and Market Bench Activities, approved in a decree signed by Angolan President João Lourenço.
Furniture, furnishings, bedding, antiques, radio equipment, electric or gas utensils, lamps, musical instruments, records and the like, motor vehicles, measuring and checking equipment, photographic material, optical articles, clothing, footwear, costume jewelry, weapons and ammunition, coins and banknotes are also banned from street vending.
The legal diploma, dated May 17, which has already been published in the Diário da República and to which Lusa has had access, aims to establish the technical and disciplinary aspects of these sales modalities as retail trade activities, in order to provide the trade authorities with legal instruments.
The regulation also establishes the procedures for the issue and integrated physical and digital renewal of the street vendor, market vendor and market stall card, as well as registration on the Electronic Commercial Licensing Platform, integrated into the Portal do Munícipe.
The sale at fairs of handicrafts, fruit and vegetables manufactured or produced by the municipality itself is subject to the provisions of the regulation, which assigns municipal administrations to authorize the exercise of street vending, by issuing and renewing the vendor's card.
Municipal administrations must also authorize the holding of fairs, according to the needs and interests of the local population, set the frequency of fairs and license local commercial activity.
Trays, stands, pavilions, trailers or any other means used for selling must have the name, address and card number of the respective seller displayed in a place that is clearly visible to the public.
The majority of citizens in Angola survive on the informal market and street vending in streets, roads, avenues, squares and other places is common practice for many citizens, mostly women, known as "zungueiras".
The authorities have taken steps to develop the Informal Economy Reconversion Program, but everything from eggs to bicycles are still sold on the street.
In Angola, almost 80% of workers have an informal job, a percentage that rises to 88% among women, according to figures released by the country's National Statistics Institute (INE)
