Zimpapers Logo

Munyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
BUSINESS was on Tuesday brought to a halt in Gweru’s Central Business District as police and illegal vendors engaged in fierce running battles after the later defied a council directive to vacate the streets and shop pavements following a typhoid outbreak.

Eight people have died due to typhoid in Gweru, while suspected cases have risen to over 1 500.

Vendors took to the streets armed with stones and other objects, pelting police and council vehicles vowing to stay put on the streets, especially on OK Zimbabwe and Pick and Pay supermarket pavements.

Last week, the local authority and the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing jointly gave vendors a 48-hour ultimatum to vacate the CBD as part of their intervention strategies to combat typhoid.

Vendors have stayed put, prompting the local authority to engage police to assist in moving them off the streets and pavements.

There was drama in the CDB from around 11am to around 3pm, as police who were trying to shepherd vendors off the streets to their designated selling points were stoned and attacked.

So tense was the situation that big retailers such as Pick n Pay, OK Zimbabwe and other shops in the CBD were forced to close.  Police scurried for cover as vendors attempted to set their vehicles on fire and had to unleash tear smoke to disperse them. Acting Midlands provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Ethel Mukwende said police were reinforcing the municipal police in moving the vendors from the streets and pavements in the CBD to designated selling points.

She said the police were not using force in doing so.

“What is happening is that following the outbreak of typhoid in Gweru, Gweru City Council approached police so that they would help in asking the vendors to vacate the CBD,” said Asst Insp Mukwende. “This is one of the strategies to combat typhoid.

“We have been engaging vendors and they are aware that they are supposed to move. Contaminated food can be a source of typhoid and Gweru City Council said vendors might also end up spreading the disease. We are not using force to move them, but we are engaging them.”

Town clerk Ms Elizabeth Gwatipedza confirmed that vendors had resisted vacating the CBD since Monday.

She said she was still to get full details pertaining to yesterday’s skirmishes.

“I am failing to get through to the person who was on the ground,” she said. “Last update was at lunch (Monday) where they were playing hide and seek. There were very few pockets of resistance and vendors had adopted a strategy of not displaying their wares, but carrying them in small quantities.”

A vendor who spoke on condition of anonymity said the challenge with the designated places set up by council was that they were crowded and out of town.

“We are looking for school fees,” he said. “Very soon, schools will be opening, so the only way to survive is illegal vending. We will live each day as it comes.”