A GROUP of street vendors who operate in the streets of Maseru have filed an urgent application in the High Court, challenging the curfew that orders people to stay off the streets.

This after the prime minister earlier this month imposed a complete shutdown of the country in a bid to curb the skyrocketing spread of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The street vendors who are represented by Advocate Napo Mafaesa have among others cited Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro as one of the respondents in the matter.

They contend that their families are starving to death due to the lockdown that has tampered with their only means of livelihood.

They argue that are no contingency plans in place to assist them notwithstanding that their businesses have been closed.

“There are no compelling or rational grounds to have closed our businesses when other businesses, including big retail outlets offering similar services as we do are allowed to operate,” their papers say, adding the big retailers are given a monopoly over them.

They describe that as an ungodly and irrational act only meant to deny them the right to sell their fruits and vegetables like other businesses have been permitted to.