Online Reporter
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]
GOVERNMENT has directed local authorities to craft sound and dignified strategies of bringing street vending and night vending to an end, as opposed to harassment and confiscation of wares by council police.
Addressing Gwanda Municipality councillors and management at the council chambers on Friday, Minister of Local Government and Public Works Daniel Garwe said local authorities were expected to come up with implementation matrices on how this programme will be rolled out in their towns and cities.
He said councils have a mandate to restore order and sanity in their towns in line with the Government’s development drive. Minister Garwe warned council police against harassing vendors and treating them in an inhumane manner. He said about 70 percent of vendors are predominantly women and elderly women.
Instead, he said, council police should uphold human dignity as enshrined in the Constitution while vendors must respect statutes and formalise their businesses.
Minister Garwe said councils should first roll out an awareness exercise to inform the public of this programme.
“This problem was created by the local authorities in the first place as they saw people moving into the streets and undesignated places to sell, but they didn’t reprimand them,” he said.
“People have been moving from other towns to Gwanda to sell at night. We want councils to be part of the solution.
They should engage various stakeholders and come up with an implementation matrix that will be used.
“This process should be done in a phased approach where councils will start from the CBDs moving outward. These are human beings and residents and citizens of this country. People shouldn’t be harassed in their own country,” he said.
Minister Garwe said local authorities will be expected to provide alternative working spaces for vendors, which have the necessary water and sanitation facilities.
He said in the process council police must not harass the vendors or confiscate their wares.
Minister Garwe said councils must put in place by-laws, which speak to street vending and night vending. He said the Government envisages a country where vending will eventually be moved to designated state-of-the-art facilities with vendors selling legal products.
“Street vending and night vending have caused problems such as a threat to public health due to the absence of ablution facilities,” he said.
“We need to protect public health by ensuring that we ban trading at night. Formal businesses are also now under threat because of illegal vending.
“The very things which they are selling in their business premises are being sold at their doorstep by people who don’t pay any rates. We must protect the business community,” said Minister Garwe.
“If economic players are being threatened, then this becomes a state of national security. The ease of doing business, which the Government is preaching every day, stems from these issues.”
Minister Garwe said night vending has become a source of criminal activities such as drug and substance abuse, hence it needs to be tackled.
Speaking during the same event, Minister of State for Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Cde Albert Nguluvhe, said the province will religiously respond to the call to bring sanity to the towns. He said the disorder caused by street vending and night vending was a threat to investment.
— @DubeMatutu
