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Government has given illegal street vendors a seven-day ultimatum to clear off city pavements. This is the most positive development in recent years. Better late than never. We hope this will also deal with kombis doing mishika-shika.

Street vending has turned Harare street pavements into a nightmare for pedestrians and shop owners. That situation cannot be allowed to define our beautiful city in the name of high unemployment.

The bottom line is that indiscriminate vending on the streets is illegal. There is no nation that can exist for long if its citizens and government no longer follow the guidance of the law.

The excuse that unemployment levels are high and therefore people should be allowed to earn a source of living informally does not translate into overt disregard of the law and public decency.

We believe that before the recent influx into the CBD over the past few months, some of these people were making a living somewhere in some part of town in spite of the high unemployment rate in the formal sector. Others set up very mobile stalls in the CBD. It was these people in the CBD who caused a headache for municipal officers, forcing the First Lady to appeal for tolerance instead of chasing them away and confiscating their wares.

That appears to have been deliberately twisted to give carte blanche which has given us the anarchy and chaos that now dominate our streets.

There are spirited efforts to hold Government to ransom in the name of unemployment. That cannot be tolerated.

First of all, there is the physical problem of chocked pavements where pedestrians have to struggle for walking space to avoid bumping into the wares of uncouth, aggressive illegal vendors.

We also cannot ignore the aesthetic implications of this vending explosion. The problem of littering, which was always bad has been compounding. The vendors do not clean the streets and pavements. They don’t pay any fees to the local authorities, yet expect municipal workers to clean up their mess several times a day.

This is closely linked with the issue of public health. What ablution facilities do all these vendors use? Where do they wash their hands, especially those who sell food such vegetables, fruits and tomatoes? Doesn’t this ring a bell for a nation that recently felt the wrath of a cholera outbreak?

In the normal course of events, those selling food are subject to stringent conditions before they can be licensed in order to protect the public. There are such things as hygiene standards of the place where food is prepared and sold as well as the packaging. Health inspectors also make sure that those who prepare and sell food are free from communicable diseases such as TB.

Local authorities appear to be gazing at a ticking time bomb to please a minority at the risk of the majority.

While we focus on those raising the unemployment card as a defence, let us not ignore disruption to the regulated retail sector uncontrolled street vending.

Formal traders are losing business to illegal vendors because they have to pay overheads, including taxes and licensing fees, which push up their prices. Illegal vendors who have zero overheads locate their stalls in shop-fronts, thus interfering with customers who would normally patronise the shop.

This is completely unfair to the shop owner and his staff who risk losing jobs when the business fails to pay overheads and operations.

We want to commend the Harare city council for setting up formal structures for law-abiding vendors where they will be required to pay a nominal fee. This will ensure that those trying to earn an honest living are not unduly inconvenienced in the long-term. After all it is the customers who must follow the market, not vendors blocking streets and pavements.

Having said that, we cannot rule out the possibility of violence from those who confuse democracy for lawlessness and anarchy who will flout the Monday ultimatum.

Rabble rousers should be quickly identified and neutralised before their mischief spins out of control. Otherwise, Government should be commended for this intervention to end chaos in our cities.