Chronicle Editor
Nohlelo Mlilo, Sunday news reporter
POLICE in Bulawayo have arrested more than 200 people in the past two weeks for flouting Covid-19 prevention and control measures among them failure to wear masks properly.
Bulawayo provincial police spokesman Inspector Abedinco Ncube said the arrests were made between 1-14 October. He said police have noted complacency among citizens especially during the scorching summer heat when most are removing masks.
Insp Ncube said police will continue to enforce Covid-19 regulations.
“Covid-19 regulations are very clear and the use of face masks covering mouth and nose is one of the measures that seek to protect people from sharing, receiving and contracting or spreading the deadly virus,” he said.
Those arrested were made to pay a fine of $500. Some citizens said while it was a noble idea to move around with masks in public, it was now too hot and the masks were making them uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, Bulawayo municipal police last week raided scores of illegal vendors who are illegally trading in the Central Business District and confisticated their wares.
The raids which started on Thursday saw the vendors and the municipal police being engaged in cat and mouse games as the local authority moved to decongest the city centre.
A number of vendors abandoned their makeshift stalls as they fled from the council police.
Bulawayo City Council spokesperson Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said the aim of the raids was to bring sanity and restore order in the city centre.
“We also seek to enforce and restore order on roads, roadsides, thoroughfares and pavements. We also seek to deter vendors from other cities in choosing the City of Bulawayo as a lucrative market for illegal vending activities and protect the licensed informal traders in the City of Bulawayo.”
Mrs Mpofu said the city has been negatively affected by the illegal vendors
“The outlook of the city has been negatively affected and also the general cleanliness due to illegal vending. The movement of human and vehicular traffic along certain roads and pavements is compromised and is against the dictates of the Road and Traffic laws, vending and health by laws,” she said.
Mrs Mpofu said the vendors were violating Covid-19 protocols and they were disposing litter everywhere.
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo