Council launches blitz on vendors in suburbs

Midlands Bureau
Gweru City Council has launched a blitz on vendors operating in suburbs and at shopping centres dotted around the city, as the local authority moves in to try and get rid of all the vending activities in the wake of typhoid outbreak that killed eight.

The local authority has since last month been involved in running battles with vendors in the Central Business District, with most vendors reportedly now retreating and operating at shopping centres.

Gweru City Council this week launched a surprise blitz, raiding vendors at most shopping centres in Mkoba and confiscating their wares.

There was drama at Mkoba 14 Shopping Centre when some vendors clashed with the police and council officials while resisting to have their wares confiscated.

Some of the vendors were arrested after they threw stones at council cars. Vendors interviewed said they felt they were now being harassed by the municipal police who were being hard on them.

They said they were now stranded after being pushed out of business.

“We have been eking out a living through vending for years and Gweru had no typhoid outbreak. The council has been reckless and has been failing to provide residents with clean water and there is typhoid and it’s blamed on us the vendors,” said Mrs Mavis Sibanda, a vendor who now operates at Mkoba 6 Shopping Centre.

Another vendor, Mr Brighton Hove, said he relocated his business to Mkoba 14 Shopping Centre after being chased from the CBD by the council police.

“We are trying to establish business here at the shopping centre after being pushed out of the CBD but the municipal police are after us again,” he said. “We survive on vending, but when they chase us everywhere, how do we survive?”

Gweru mayor Cllr Shadreck Makombe confirmed the blitz in the suburbs and at shopping centres, saying the local authority will not leave any stone unturned in making the city clean.

“We are cleaning our city, everyone wants a clean city. If we have a clean city we won’t have these disease out breaks,” he said.