1979 by-laws repealed

Lovemore Meya Herald Correspondent
Chitungwiza Municipality has repealed the outdated 1979 by-laws on hawkers and vendors by replacing them with newly-crafted by-laws of 2017, which will enable the arrest and fining of offenders. Acting town clerk Mrs Charity Maunga revealed this in an interview yesterday after council adopted the by-laws during a recent caretaker council meeting.

“In terms of the Urban Councils Act section 230, the Minister many publish any statutory instrument by-laws for any purpose and local authorities can adopt them,” said Mrs Maunga.

“Once you adopt such by-laws, you use them in your jurisdiction, so that is what happened in 1979 when Chitungwiza Municipality adopted the vendors and hawkers model by-laws which had been made by the ministry by that time. Our view is that those by-laws are now outdated because there are various weaknesses, among the major one being no offences and penalty’s position and enforcement mechanisms. At the same time we cannot amend them because they were made by the ministry, so in terms of the section 231 we are empowered to repeal such adoption.”