Chronicle Editor
Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
GWERU City Council (GCC) has started deploying its parking department staff to clamp vehicles in the Central Business District (CBD) whose owners must stay home in compliance with the lockdown order.
There has been an influx of vehicles and people into the CBD since Monday in contravention of lockdown regulations.
President Mnangagwa declared a three-week lockdown that commenced on March 30 but extended it by a further two weeks on Sunday, hours before its expiry due to a spike in infections.
In Gweru, there has been rampant defiance of the lockdown order.
GCC public relations and communication officer Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee said Gweru District Covid-19 Taskforce had recommended the engagement of security officers in clamping vehicles which are not supposed to be in the CBD.
“The parking space in the CBD is to accommodate essential service providers who require uninterrupted access,” she said.
“The number of vehicles coming into the CBD has increased hence the need to work together with other law enforcement agencies to ensure adherence to the lockdown extension. The Gweru District Covid-19 Taskforce committee agreed and directed us to work with the army and police to bring order in the CBD which is being characterised by a surge in vehicular movements.”
Meanwhile, Ms Chingwaramusee said council had engaged the informal sector with structures at undesignated points to remove them before council carries out a demolition exercise.
Ms Chingwaramusee said the local authority is complying with the Cabinet resolution to take advantage of the national lockdown to clear informal trading place to ensure that sanity prevails.
“We will be doing so at Kudzanai long distance bus terminus; Swift flea market and Kombayi fruit and vegetable wholesale market. We have engaged informal traders so that they collect their wares as we do not want to demolish their wares. Council will be on the lookout for vendors at shop pavements also as we weed out rampant illegal vending in the city,” she said.
Ms Chingwaramusee said the local authority was in the process of looking for alternative vending areas for the affected traders.
Online Reporter