Chronicle EditorBongani Ndlovu, Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT has expressed concern over the sprouting of flea markets in undesignated places around city centres saying besides stifling the formalisation of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), this was a ticking health time bomb.
The Minister of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Dr Sithembiso Nyoni, expressed these sentiments yesterday in Bulawayo.
She had visited a thriving illegal flea market along 5th Avenue between Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and Jason Moyo Streets in Bulawayo, where several items such as second-hand clothes, various food stuffs and other basic commodities are sold from the streets.
Dr Nyoni was accompanied by Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs chairman, Mr Coustin Ngwenya, and senior ministry officials to get a feel of how the vendors are operating and to appreciate their challenges.
Countless times, Bulawayo City Council employees raid this area, trying to bring sanity, but the vendors return and the sheer number of them makes it difficult to contain.
Dr Nyoni said there needs to be more formal flea markets to be added to the 145 already there, calling on her ministry, the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Judith Ncube and the Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs to come together and make it happen. She said this would curtail a potential health time bomb.
“Bulawayo is a city that is very organised and it has got 145 flea markets and it has got 15 zones where people operate from,” said Dr Nyoni.
“But all of a sudden within the last two months, people have flooded the streets. I have come to say to the local authority, the Chamber of SMEs that has just been elected, the minister of state and my ministry they should get together and see what can be done to register these people so that they are given workspace rather than being all over the CBD because we are facing health issues, such as ablution, water and we may be going for a health hazard.
It’s time that the four parties come together to make sure that we facilitate the informal sector to trade properly,” said Dr Nyoni. She said if this is not done, those who are following the law would also do the same.
“This is also an indication that either the economy is booming or there’s something that we really have to look into. Where are all these clothes, all of a sudden coming from?” said the minister.
“We have been touring SMEs that are manufacturing clothes, so if we have all these clothes on the streets, where will they sell what they’re manufacturing? As a ministry we are advocating for women in production,” said Dr Nyoni.
“I’m saying those authorities must come together and make sure that there is some organisation. Because if we just let it go like this, it means those SMEs that are organised will also leave the flea market and come outside.
“We need to create a workspace for everybody, but in a space where there is hygiene, where there is water and ablution blocks.”
One of the vendors, Ms Nkululeko Ncube urged the relevant authorities to quickly build flea markets for them.
“I sell my wares in Emganwini and the conditions are like what people see here in the city centre. As a resident of Bulawayo, we want the city to be clean and we are appealing to the minister and other various stakeholders to build and allocate for us places where we can work from,” she said.
“At these legal places our wares are safe and also the Bulawayo City Council doesn’t not raid, like what is most likely to happen here.”Mr Ngwenya, who is Chamber of SMEs chairman, acknowledged that there was chaos on the streets.
“The concerns of the minister are also our concerns, because there is now chaos here. This isn’t what we want as SMEs to operate,” he said.
“We want to operate in a well-structured way in an organised way. We are encouraging SMEs to be organised so that we are taken seriously as business people. But the way we are operating here, it’s tarnishing the image of SMEs,” said Mr Ngwenya.
He said it was dangerous to operate in some if not most of these illegal flea markets. “In terms of security there’s no security here, or what if it rains, what would happen.
Even customers, you can’t attract all types because there are some who don’t want to be at a place where there’s chaos for their security,” said Mr Ngwenya.
“Some want to bring their children, but they can’t take risks and also the place is just by the road and it is dangerous to operate from here.”
He said the Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs would help register all those who do not have designated places to sell their wares from. — Follow on Twitter @bonganinkunzi
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