Online Reporter
Remember Deketeke
HARARE City Council’s crackdown on illegal vending and urban disorder gets into full swing today, with at least 300 municipal police officers expected to hit the streets.
The operation starts at the corner of E.D. Mnangagwa Road, formerly Enterprise Road, and Samora Machel Avenue before spreading to other populated areas.
Harare mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume said the number of municipal cops could be increased if the need arose.
“We are going to increase the complement of municipal police that are going to be in the streets tomorrow (today) to close to 200 or 300 police or more should the situation require,” he said.
The operation is being conducted under the city’s Chenesa Harare campaign and will initially focus on persuading vendors operating from undesignated areas to move to approved trading sites.
“We are simply moving phase to phase and illustrating the need for vendors to operate in an orderly manner and at designated places,” he said.
Clr Mafume said the city needed to reclaim pavements and roads being occupied by vendors.
“We need to free up space for traffic, for pedestrians, for vehicles and the city to be able to breathe in terms of navigability and also the ease of doing business,” he said.
Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe said the disorder was no longer acceptable.
“. . . it is no longer business as usual,” he said.
Zimbabwe National Vendors Association CEO Abel Zvobgo encouraged vendors to comply with the directive.
“We want everybody not to go to the usual illegal spots which they’ve been operating from.
“Let them respect, let them allow the Minister to take the due course of removing our membership,” he said.
