The issue of street markets

The vendors reoccupied their sites as soon as the ashes cooled. They did not believe the fire was an accident. Their suspicions were confirmed before the end of October, when eviction orders were posted on the walls of the burnt-out market, giving all the vendors 48 hours to vacate the market. The vendors’ committee met the following day with the Minister responsible while nobody moved from the market. The Minister withdrew the eviction orders and declared that government wanted to move all the vendors to a more suitable site. Vendors were given a fortnight to confirm that they were registered. Their first list of over 1,700 names proved to be full of duplicated names, usually with very slightly different spellings. This was to be expected before independence where junior white clerks delighted in mis-spelling African names. Those were not all sacked on 18 April 1980 , so the practice may have continued at least until those clerks were replaced by indigenous and hopefully more literate staff. This was just an example of the carelessness of administrators which the vendors had long been used to. Over the next two weeks, two additional lists were issued and presumably negotiations continued between the two parties.

In January construction work on an area with a large corrugated iron roof began and continued all night, which was interpreted on the ground as an effort to forestall protests and demonstrations. That has now been standing almost empty since its completion at the end of January.

Government produced a list of about 1,700 names, supposedly of people entitled to places in the new structure over 400 of which were not recognised by any of the vendors.

There is a row of 6 billboards along the roadside of the new structure; one advertises a bank (what use would informal traders and their customers have for a bank?) and 3 of the others advertise “Kurima Centre” (or are they indicating Kurima Centre ownership?) This is a farm equipment seller with premises in Harare’s industrial sites, according to its website, which curiously, does not mention the branch in Chegutu, so maybe there are other branches. Nobody asks who owns this company; they seem to know.

The vendors are refusing to pay rent of reportedly $200/month plus various charges estimated at possible $50/month and $1 for each visit to the small lavatory block i.e at least $300/month in total to occupy stands smaller than those they already have. I may be underestimating lavatory visits because many of the vendors are mothers with small children. They currently pay $20/month for those larger stands, with no surcharges. As a result, the new structure remains empty. There was a heavy police presence around the new and old sites early in April, but both sites are quiet at the moment.

A threat that ZIMRA would remove all street vendors in the country, especially those that operate at night, led to some violence in Bulawayo and a greater concentration of street vendors in the city centre at night. An attempt to remove the central market in Bulawayo to a prepared site in a less accessible location also suffers a deadlock.

A bullying bankrupt regime struggles to squeeze every last dollar out of the citizenry, but like all bullies, they don’t know what to do when they meet determined unarmed resistance.