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Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
GWERU City Council has courted an investor to set up vegetable and fruit market bays that will accommodate at least 5 000 vendors.

In an interview, Gweru mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said the local authority is expected to finalise the deal this week.

The deal will see the investor constructing a state-of-the art fruit and vegetable market that will also have cold rooms to store perishable goods.

Clr Makombe said hitherto their operation to clear vendors from the pavements in the central business district (CBD) early this year, the illegal vendors had become a marauding menace in the city.

He said after there was a typhoid outbreak in the city, the local authority has decided to house vendors at a designated place that is sanitary to avoid outbreak of diseases that breed under unhygienic conditions.

Clr Makombe said work on the project will commence soon after they conclude the deal.

The construction work is expected to take less than three months so that the facility will be opened before the beginning of the rain season.

“I think you are very much aware of the challenges that we had in the city with our vendors. We had endless running battles with vendors in the CBD.

“So what we have done to address these challenges is that we partnered an investor who will come and set up a state-of-the-art fruit and vegetable market and partition it into 5000 bays.

‘‘We hope that by this kind of investment this disorder that we see in the CBD will be a thing of the past.

“We are signing an agreement with the investor this week and work will commence thereafter. The project is worth millions of dollars,” he said.