Harare amends vending by-laws

to move into the sector.
Vendors had complained that the current by-laws were outdated and restrictive.
Chairman of the city’s environment management committee, Councillor Herbert Gomba, confirmed changes were on the way.
“We want vendors to sell their wares freely at designated points,” he said.
Clr Gomba said council was responding to concerns raised by residents and their associations as well as vendors.
Sentiments are that vendors are unfairly treated with municipal police summarily confiscating their goods.
Some vendors have complained that they are beaten up, rounded up and made to pay fines on top of losing their goods to either municipal or State police.
Clr Gomba said the new by-laws would recognise the need to provide decent market stalls that are fully serviced.
Presently, Harare municipal police arrest vendors and hand them over to the ZRP who collect fines for onward transmission to Treasury.
However, the resources used are all from council.
Housing, education, health and licensing committee chairman Clr Charles Nyatsuro said the city faced the problem of unlicensed vendors.
He said vendors with genuine problems should forward their concerns to his committee.
Vendors say the US$122 they are asked to pay for a year’s trading licence is too high when compared to their profit margins.
In the past, the city’s actions against vendors were largely driven by complaints from formal businesspersons, who complained of losing business to informal traders.