City councillors side with vendors Zimbabweans flood the streets to sell tomatoes, apples, bananas, oranges, sweets, cellphone covers, belts, shoes and pesticides on pavements. Very few occupy formal shops

Innocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
THE MDC-T controlled Harare City Council has said it will not remove illegal vendors from the streets, as it follows the unpopular stance taken by the party which hopes to profit from the anarchy on the streets.

Sources at the council said yesterday that the sending on forced leave of Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi by the city’s mayor, Mr Bernard Manyenyeni, on Tuesday was because the town clerk was keen to implement the Government directive that the illegal vendors be moved out.

The decision taken by the council to support the illegality being committed by the vendors is surprising as the same councillors have been pushing for the city to gain world class city status by the year 2025.

Yet everyone is agreed that the illegal vendors’ operations are a hindrance to the achievement of that dream which many residents have been working hard to achieve.

At least 15 sites have been designated for the illegal vendors outside the Central Business District and the Government has since indicated that it is now the duty of the city council to restore order by relocating them.

The Harare City Council, which is mainly made up of MDC-T members, withdrew the item on illegal vendors from the full council meeting held on Tuesday at the instigation of party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.

The opposition party councillors had a caucus before the full council meeting in which Mr Tsvangirai’s stance that the illegal vendors must stay put on the streets was outlined.

Informal Sector Committee chairperson councillor Wilton Janjazi was then instructed to withdraw the item on vendors from the agenda.

In withdrawing the item during the full council meeting, Clr Janjazi did not give any reasons for his action.

The city’s deputy mayor, Mr Thomas Muzuva, confirmed yesterday that the city heeded Mr Tsvangirai’s call to spare the illegal vendors.

“It is our president’s stance and it was communicated to us long back and it is what we are following,” he said. “On the day of every full council meeting we caucus on items on the agenda, but on the day in question (Tuesday) no one came from the party to inform us of that position.”

It was evident from last Friday when the deadline for the illegal vendors to move out of the streets expired that the MDC-T council was reluctant to implement the Government directive to relocate them to the approved sites.

From Friday and throughout the weekend, the vendors were not keen to display their goods on the streets, bringing a few items at a time, and this was a clear sign that they were testing the waters.

But they returned in full force on Monday after realising that the authorities were reluctant to force them out.

Mr Tsvangirai told his supporters at a meeting at the Exhibition Park in Harare over the weekend that his party will not allow Government to remove vendors from the streets.

Some Harare councillors yesterday said Dr Mahachi was forced out because he was about to act on the illegal vendors.

“The town clerk was on the verge of moving the vendors out after the vendor registration process, but the party (MDC-T) felt that he would be going against Mr Tsvangirai hence he had to be silenced,” said a councillor.

Small to Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni recently lashed out at some politicians who are using vendors to achieve their political agendas.

Minister Nyoni held a meeting with the illegal vendors’ leaders and 16 out of 17 organisations agreed to comply with the Government directive.

Mr Stan Zvorwadza’s National Vendors’ Union of Zimbabwe, which is linked to the MDC-T, said it would stay put.

Mr Zvorwadza lost the MDC-T primaries for Mbare constituency for the 2013 harmonised elections and he has been to several countries that are against Zimbabwe seeking funds to mount resistance by the illegal vendors.

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