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empower it to impose stiffer penalties for vending offences.
Harare City Council has already repealed exiting by-laws after observing that the old laws did not empower it to charge penalties for vending crimes.
The city is also working on a regime of fines to be made public soon.

Harare Hawkers and People’s Mar-kets by-laws were promulgated in 1978 and 1983 respectively. These laws have now been replaced by Harare (Ven-dors) By-laws and Harare (Hawkers) By-laws 2011 respectively.
The two draft by-laws now await full council approval before being handed over to Government for scrutiny and gazetting. Once gazetted, they become effective enabling the city to collect fines from vending offences.

The new laws provide for imprisonment of offenders for a period not exceeding one year in the event of failing to pay the prescribed fines.
However, the new laws do not affect vendors selling co-operate products such as newspapers and airtime cards among others.

The repealed by-laws did not empower council to charge offenders for contravention “of the by-laws and to confiscate goods found with the offenders such that they could only be released upon payment of storage charges”. This resulted in council losing a lot of money because all the offenders arrested were handed over to the Zimbabwe Republic Police where they paid admission of guilty fines to central Government.

According to city documents, the new by-laws are modelled alongside those in South Africa.
The other major highlights of the Harare (Vendors) By-laws 2011 are that vendors are defined as any person who carries on the business of selling goods or foodstuffs within a vending site with a permit or lease agreement.

The major difference of the new by-law compared to the old one is that “a hawker is supposed to move from place to place whilst selling goods whilst a vendor will be stationed in one place at a vending site”.
The new by-law empowers council to decide which types of goods can be sold at any given vending site through a council resolution.

In the old by-laws vendors were allowed to sell animals at a vending site but in efforts to protect public health, “selling of all types of animals has been prohibited to be sold in a vending site”.
The other by-law, which has been repealed, the Harare (Hawkers) By-laws had an outdated demarcation of what is referred to as the Central Business District.

Hawkers are not allowed to operate within the CBD because doing business in the area causes congestion.
Areas bounded by Herbert Chitepo, Fifth Street, Robson Manyika, Kenneth Kaunda up to the Seke Road flyover, area along the railway line to Cripps Road and then up to Rotten Row were demarcated as the CBD.

Its major highlights are that it covers hawkers who carry on the business of selling goods while travelling from place to place, either on foot or with a carrier or vehicle or pushcart. The by-law empowers the city to limit the number of hawkers in a given area to reduce congestion and to prescribe certain operating conditions on the licence in “the interest of public health”.

Hawkers selling wares from their vehicles would be required to park at least seven metres away from the road and would not be prohibited from parking in the road reserve. No hawker shall be allowed to employ another person to conduct business on their behalf.

“All processed foodstuffs should be wrapped and prepared from licenced premises. This is important to alleviate problems of cholera and all other diseases,” reads part of a report to the environment management committee by chamber secretary Josephine Ncube.

Hawkers would not be allowed to sell any foodstuffs other than those specified in the city schedules. The prohibited foodstuffs are bakery products and sandwiches containing meat, fish or fresh cream and any other foodstuffs that may from time to time be prohibited by the city health director.