adminHilda Muchamiri
The cholera outbreak in our country has now been declared a state of emergency and rightly so.
People have perished and are continuously perishing because of this deadly disease. The Government has put in place emergency legislation which has resulted in the ban of hawking presumably until the dark chapter in our health sector passes.
One of the by-laws is Harare (Hawkers) by-laws 2013 which prohibits hawking business unless one has a valid hawkers employers’ licence.
Yet recently the Minister of local Government July Moyo, has banned all types of vending with immediate effect regardless of whether they have this licence or not. It is a noble response in such a dark time because extreme situations such as cholera deserve extreme measures like the ban.
Yet sadly, vendors are not heeding this call and have continued with their vending regardless, further putting human lives into potential jeopardy. This is disrespecting the authorities. It is also disregarding the sanctity of human life.
There is need for the enforcement of these regulations and the Government should take the lead. It is not the end of the irony of them crawling back onto the streets once the police leave after sending them off on their way. There is a deeper irony; if you are to go to the seat of Government — Kaguvi Building and the New Government Complex, you will see vendors right in the shadow of the building. What does that mean? Will other people comply, no ways. And if Government cannot remove vendors in fresh fruit from their own doorstep, their own shadows, should it be surprising that the task to remove them far from their noses is proving no mean feat?
Most people are blaming the city council for failing to provide its residents with clean water, failing to attend to burst sewage pipes in time and non-collection of garbage. Alas as citizen what are we doing to curb the spread of cholera?
Some of the citizens are actually buying fish as relish for the family, fruits, on the streets in this day and age, so we must not centre our blame entirely on the city fathers. Practicing hygiene must begin with us citizen of this nation.
Certainly even if vendors continue evading the authorities and continue to surreptitiously sell their ware, the war can be won if there is apathy from the citizens and they decide not to buy the wares; at least until the scourge has passed.
Public relations officer of City of Harare said, a large chunk of vendors has gone but he reiterated that enforcement does not happen overnight. Perhaps.
But the vendors are crawling into town in the dead of the night once the enforcers check out of work and go home. Certainly a state of emergency should mean the authorities should not sleep and should have a 24 /7 approach to enforce state of emergency.
Perhaps a crack team round the clock to ensure the public are protected from themselves until we return to normalcy? Most certainly!
Online Reporter