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THE AFFLUENT ‘‘VENDOR’’. . . Sten Zvorwadza purports to represent vendors although he has no vending stall to his name, drives a huge car and spends a good part of his time on the plane to Canada and Europe

Tichaona Zindoga Political Editor—
There was a flare up of skirmishes in Harare on Tuesday when “vendors” in Harare clashed with police as the former allegedly protested against confiscation of their wares by municipal police. As it turned out, the municipal police were overpowered, resulting in them enlisting the services of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, who responded by firing teargas to quell the melee. But the story of what actually transpired is contentious — though this controversy suggests strong political undercurrents in an otherwise simple matter of eking out a living on the streets. One can safely say that there now exists on the streets of Harare vendors who have a reason of being (that is eking out a living) on the one hand, and those being themselves a reason to be on the street (that is serving personal ends that have nothing to do with their claimed status as vendors.)

In simpler terms, on one hand are people who have a genuine reason to be on the streets because poverty and unemployment have sent them there while others are now taking advantage of the situation and are now using vendors for ulterior purposes.

It is common cause that the massive de-industrialisation that has taken place in Zimbabwe due to sanctions imposed by western countries at the behest of the opposition has led to many people seeking and creating jobs on the informal market.

Street vending has pulled a lot of numbers due to its low entry requirements in terms of skills and capital. It has also the extra lure of “easy cash” borne out of the quick turnover of wares ranging from trinkets from outside the country to vegetables — and even roast maize.

The reason the Harare City Council has failed to properly regulate vending, by either sticking to archaic laws and failing to adjust to a new socio-economic reality, resulting in it being overwhelmed by the sheer number of unregulated vendors, has been an extra lure.

Why not, it’s a free for all! Those with elementary knowledge of sociology will quickly call to mind the so-called broken windows theory. Or, much worse, that the streets have become lawless — think of the disorder wrought by kombis and pirate taxis and pushcarts — so anything goes.

Harare is pretty much to blame for the chaos in the CBD, trying though it has to bring order, apparently half-heartedly. So, on the one hand vending, and illegal vending, have thrived in Harare salving a lot of hungry families.

This category is not interested in many other things than putting food on the tables. Indeed, the past couple of months have more than demonstrated that. The period has witnessed political battles playing out on the streets as the opposition and its appendages have tried to use the streets as a launchpad for violent confrontation with Government.

The idea of the anti-government activists is to provoke a scene that would outrage the common man and woman on the street and cause them to attack police and law enforcement and security personnel and property, paving way for a “revolution”.

As has been noted already as the efforts have gone — as indeed they are ongoing — they have had no takers and the vigilantes have taken to seeking human shields to provoke the public into confronting police and authorities who are unwittingly drawn in.

Vendors have been critical in all this. Being on the streets for no more than eking a living, vendors though multitudinous they are, have been conspicuous by their indifference. It had been hoped and feared in equal measure by antagonistic elements that they would be all too ready for an uprising. They have confounded everyone.

They have angered members of the belligerent opposition who wanted to use them as fodder in a war with government. Failing which the opposition has turned on them and burnt and looted their wares. The biggest informal market at Copacabana is becoming a theatre of this war.

One tends to think of the likes of one Cde Bla Max, a registered cardholder with Harare City Council who runs a leather products stall who has bitterly seen the disruptive behaviour of goons not only picking fights with authorities resulting in loss of business but also the same hooligans now targeting wares of vendors at the market.

A large flea market there was recently burnt to ashes and thousands of dollars’ worth of wares lost. Across town, right up to the “hustlers” at Ximex Mall, bona fide informal traders have complained of how political activists, some of them masquerading as vendors, have ruined many a day.

Making a political king
Then you have one Sten Zvorwadza who poses as the chairman of the so-called National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe. Zvorwadza is an opposition politician who a few years ago sought to stand for Mbare Constituency on an MDC-T ticket but was stood down in internal processes. Today he purports to represent vendors although he has no vending stall to his name, drives a huge car and spends a good part of his time on the plane to Canada and Europe.

At the Copacabana market, for example, he is an unknown quantity and where he is known he is regarded with something between cynicism and utter contempt. His organisation was formed a couple of years ago largely for political opportunism and attendant financial gains, including through corporate sponsorship thanks to such products as health and funeral assurance.

(A major funeral company had ventured a deal, which it had to quickly withdraw for political reasons.)

Zvorwadza has been on the forefront of trying to stir a “vendor”-led revolt and has partnered the openly anti-government #Tajamuka movement. It may be recalled that before the formation of his own outfit, #Tajamuka leader Promise Mkwananzi, a former official of the opposition MDC youth wing, had a de facto position at Navuz and often spoke at their functions.

For his own part, Zvorwadza has been busy mounting protests, conducting illegal marches and addresses and “getting himself arrested”. It is a familiar script of opposition figures in the country, and one that earns individuals money — lots of money — from Western embassies and trips to western capitals.

It’s a well-worn template.

Examples of Zvorwadza’s political activism, which draws from mainstream opposition, abound, including appearing in courts for assaulting Zanu-PF members in Mbare. He has also been accused of threatening to burn Rainbow Towers for accommodating Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko and was recently revealed to have threatened to march to State House.

All the things that Zvorwadza has been involved with have pretty zilch to do with vendors as relating to their genuine concerns about how the trade could be improved to add more food to the table.

Rather, what he has been doing is his personal ego trip anchored on long held political ambition as a member of the opposition MDC-T. He wants vendors to make him a political king. It is also arguable that he has carved into the niche of playing to the international (read Western) gallery in front of cameras so as to reap personal financial rewards and perhaps an odd award here and there.

This is why he often litters our streets — quite a far cry from those genuinely seeking to earn a living through selling illegally (which responsibility lies squarely on the door of the city council which must as a matter of urgency come up with realistic ideas such as the creation of market streets and other regular mass markets to accommodate this socio-economic phenomenon rather than archaic and irrelevant policing and planning methods).