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Cythia Gauya Correspondent
The current chaos rocking local authorities and vendors calls for a sober analysis of the current pieces of legislation governing local authorities.

In an economy in such a state of fragility with high levels of unemployment and deindustrialisation, the growth of the informal sector makes it difficult for local authorities to manage them.

While efforts by council to penalise vendors who constitute the bulk of the informal sector, policies to legalise and govern them should be put in place.

Instead of chasing vendors up and down the streets the strategy should be to make sure that the vendors are legalised and the council collects daily revenues.

One hard reality is that companies are failing to produce. Those that are producing are failing to reward effectively.

As such even employees who are deemed employed in formal sectors of the economy are found engaged in the informal sector to ensure they get a supplementary income.

Employers in Zimbabwe are calling for and angling on productivity and in contrast labour lobbying for increased salaries.

The situation is worse for Government employees who are calling for salaries well above the poverty datum line and yet Government coffers are dwindling.

As if that is not enough, more than 700 companies have closed shop, leaving thousands jobless.

Universities and colleges are channelling thousands of graduates per year to the labour market, graduates who are finding it hard to get employed since industry is closing shop.

The question is how are all these people surviving?

Obviously they have turned to the informal sector.

In various forums, the informal sector has been lauded for absorbing the glut of unemployed people in the economy.

With unemployment in the formal sector estimated at around 80 percent, there is no way councils can and will ever win this war.

The informal sector is now “the” sector not only in Zimbabwe but worldwide.

Resultantly, the new public management policies should be designed to harness this hard reality.

More often than not I look with wonder and awe to see authorities battling with vendors selling their wares on the streets.

I have a strong feeling that the authorities should change focus and legalise the vendors.

Give them designated areas to conduct their business.

At the end of the day both parties benefit.

Council will collect revenue, either daily or weekly to ensure effective service delivery.

Interesting to note are examples from other countries.

Over 94 percent of India’s working population is part of the disorganised sector.

Disorganised sector, also known as informal sector or own account enterprises, refers to all unlicensed, self-employed or unregistered economic activity such as owner manned general stores, handicrafts, rural traders and farmers.

Given our current situation as a country doing away with pirate taxis, say in Harare where they are posing a serious threat to pedestrians running from authorities, they just have to be licensed to conduct their businesses in an official and professional manner.

It is time Government and local authorities accepted the hard reality confronting the nation.

There should be a paradigm shift towards the traditional models of managing local authorities.

Reality on the ground suggests that with such high levels of unemployment, people cannot adopt a wait and see approach nor wait for fate to take its own toll.

Rather they embark on entrepreneurial activities to fend for themselves, feed their children, pay school fees and survive.

With dwindling formal employment, looming retrenchments in companies, people have to survive by all means.

Let, for example, Harare city council design a new framework that licences vendors at designated streets, that should be closed for business.

Let the pirate taxis be legalised and they pay for their licenses, after all there is no transport right in the CBD.

Airtime vendors, etc should equally be licensed and get taxed, with the money channelled towards service delivery, in terms of drainage, water, roads and sewer services.

The Government, through the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operatives Development Cde Stembiso Nyoni, in 2014 indicated that an estimate of $7,4 billion was circulating in the informal sector.

This explains why the informal sector is deemed “the” sector now.

Surely with such huge figures Government and urban and rural authorities should strategise on how they can raise revenue through licensing these.

A 2012 survey indicates that 5,7 million jobs were created from 2,8 million SMEs.

The figure obviously has increased due to the rise in the number of company closures and retrenchments.

If one was to take the situation in Gweru, Bata used to employ an excess of 5 000 employees but is now left with less than 100; Zim Alloys had 2 000 now it is left with less than 400, Zimglass and Zimcast are left with a handful of employees.

The question is where are those people and what are they doing to survive?

Global trends suggest the growth of the informal sector.

In Zimbabwe this is our new reality that both Government and local authorities should accept.

Unemployment levels are too high and, therefore, they need to look to the informal sector.

Let local authorities regulate and license all these and ensure they get revenue for service delivery.

There is a lot of cash in the informal sector and there is need for a new thinking.