Mozambique | Informal trade sparks uproar at the Inhambane Central Market

Merchants located inside the Inhambane Central Market have decided to move their goods outside in protest against improvised stalls occupying the area reserved for public transport operators. They claim a loss of customers and state that repeated complaints to management have produced no solution. Nearly two years after opening with the promise of organizing trade in the city of Inhambane and offering better conditions for vendors, the Central Market faces a problem that threatens the purpose for which it was designed.

Part of the outdoor area reserved for passenger transport operators is occupied by vendors who have set up makeshift stalls and sell various goods daily. This situation has caused discontent for some time among those assigned stalls inside. On Thursday, they decided to transform their dissatisfaction into protest, removing their goods from their indoor stalls and taking them outside to compete directly for customers with the informal vendors whose presence they contest.

The scene reveals two conflicting realities at the doors of the same facility. While merchants installed inside complain that improvised stalls strip away customers and make it increasingly difficult to sustain their businesses, those selling outside insist they did not voluntarily choose to occupy the transport zone, justifying their presence with an alleged lack of available stalls inside the Central Market. Albertina, one of the vendors operating outside, says that family survival takes precedence over the risks associated with occupying an undesignated space.

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She acknowledges the dangers but insists that leaving without an alternative would mean losing her sole income source. “We know there could be danger, but we have nowhere else to go. We are looking for our daily bread.

Nobody can live on hunger,” the vendor explains, exposing the social dimension of a problem that extends beyond physical market management. However, for those assigned stalls inside, the explanation presented by outdoor vendors does not eliminate what they view as unfair competition. Consumers arriving at the Central Market encounter the goods displayed outside first, and many complete their purchases there without entering the building.

Confronted with this scenario, several indoor merchants decided on Thursday to remove their products and set up outside as well—not due to a lack of space, but as a form of protest and pressure on market management, demonstrating that they are unwilling to remain inside a facility with a shrinking customer base while commercial activity thrives at its doorstep. Laura, one of the vendors joining the protest, explains that the decision to leave stems from falling sales and what she considers a lack of response from authorities to repeated grievances over time. She argues that all vendors should be subject to the same rules and operate within designated spaces.

“We are out here because customers do not go inside due to the other market operating outside. What we are asking our municipality right now is to remove those people outside so they also enter the market,” she states, making clear that the protesters’ goal is not to abandon the facility permanently, but to force a solution that brings shoppers back to internal stalls. The situation is transforming the outdoor area into a direct competitor of the Central Market itself.

The larger the quantity of goods available on makeshift stalls outside, the less need consumers feel to step inside the building, leading to declining sales for those remaining at formal stalls. Benilde, a merchant who continues working inside, shares that on some days she spends virtually her entire shift waiting for buyers, watching foot traffic concentrate outside where various goods are sold before customers even cross the market doors. This reality, she says, is causing losses and making it nearly impossible to survive exclusively on business inside the building.

For the merchants, it is not merely a matter of consumer preference, but of location and ease of access. Arriving shoppers encounter outdoor vendors first and can buy goods without entering the Central Market, placing those who follow regulations and remain inside at a distinct disadvantage when competing for the same customers. “Outside is full of people selling, and here inside the market nobody enters,” Benilde laments, describing days when earnings fall far short of expectations, barely covering the time and costs associated with commercial trading.

The phenomenon is producing the opposite effect of what was intended with the construction of the new facility. The market created to consolidate and organize commercial activity now faces a dynamic where remaining inside represents an economic disadvantage, while selling outside provides immediate contact with buyers. This perception has led formally installed merchants to adopt the same strategy as those they criticize, creating a cycle that is difficult to break: the more vendors move outside, the more products become available outdoors; the more products available outside, the fewer reasons consumers find to enter; and the lower the foot traffic inside, the greater the pressure on other merchants to do the same.

Thursday’s uproar did not arise overnight. Vendors state they have repeatedly raised their concerns with Central Market management and received promises of intervention that have yet to translate into visible action. Laura notes that merchants have waited a long time for a concrete response and that the lack of a timeline for resolving the issue has heightened outrage among those accumulating losses: “We have spoken several times; they say they will send a team, but they never do.” As a result, several vendors decided that waiting inside for a solution was no longer economically sustainable.

At this point, the issue moves beyond a simple dispute among vendors to raise broader questions about urban commercial governance. Removing outdoor vendors without offering an alternative could shift them to other areas of the city, while allowing them to remain in the transport area will continue to drain foot traffic from inside and incentivize more vendors to abandon their stalls. Resolving the situation requires balancing the need for municipal order with an unavoidable economic reality: for many of these families, daily sales represent their primary or sole source of income.

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