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Blessings Chidakwa
Municipal Reporter
THE Government has secured funding for the construction of formal markets at Shawasha grounds in Mbare.
This comes as a US$30 million deal initiated by Harare City Council in 2014 to construct a state-of-the-art mall failed to materialise over the years.
Harare Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Senator Oliver Chidawu confirmed the securing of the funds, saying there had been huge demand for legal trading areas by the informal sector in the Mbare area where most people were operating illegally at markets along Cripps Road and Remembrance Drive.
A facelift for the Shawasha area is expected to bring relief to informal traders who were always engaged in running battles with law enforcement agents for operating from undesignated sites.
Speaking in Mbare recently, Minister Chidawu said systems had been activated for the construction of formal market stalls.
“The people you have seen here will be removed from outside and will be housed in a market. We have obtained funds from our pension funds.
“We are in the process of appointing architects for the job of designing the market so that we will build a market that will cater for all the people. We have been given money by the central Government through devolution funds to revamp Mbare,”
Construction of the market would shut out space barons who were operating Mafia-style protection rackets that were extorting money from traders.
The Government is now taking a leading role to have the necessary legal business conditions created to protect people from the criminal gangs allocating illegal trading stands.
It also wants to ensure that Harare City Council reclaims control of revenue inflows which it had lost in recent years to criminal gangs.
Online Reporter