Meat vendors throw caution to the wind

Mbongeni Msimanga
MARTHA Mangeyi (26) sits in front of her various merchandise that include eggs and different meat products anxiously waiting for people who have knocked off from their various workplaces and are on their way home to buy.
She is not alone in the pavements of Bulawayo’s busy Lobengula Street as discordant voices of men and women in the same trade shout out as if they are in a competition at the pitch of their voices all in an effort to lure people to buy their small meat packs.

Yes, the vendors are strategic in locating their trade zones and time as they start displaying much of their wares around 3pm when people will be flocking Basch Street Terminus popularly known as Egodini for their transport home. An assortment of meat products ranging from beef, chicken, fish and other pieces packed in small plastic packs are displayed on dirty and very recently rainy littered pavements so as to entice customers. The meat packets sell for a dollar.

Martha has adjusted well to the streets and meat vending has become her life, her honest way of survival and her only battle is that of competing with other meat vendors on the street which calls for her to be more tact in merchandising her products.

“I have been here for the past four years and it makes me survive. I have been able to take my children to school because of meat vending. I am used to shouting out in the streets because my voice attracts people to come and buy this meat,” she said as she calls out for customers to buy her meat.

Martha faces the task of chasing away swarms of flies attracted by the smell emanating from the blood dripping dish of defreezing meat including amathumbu, chicken livers, necks, gizzards and feet.

These vendors are now used to running battles with municipal police who constantly raid them and confiscate their products for according to the city council by-laws they are not supposed to be trading at undesignated points. In other words they are illegal as they are operating outside the parameters of the statutes that govern the city.

And oftentimes their wares are confiscated in most of the raids but they are not moved — to them it has been a battle of survival. They have no option but to play the cat and mouse game with the municipal police  who are called oMakokoba in street lingo. In the running battles some of the meat products fall on the dust padded streets and they repackage the meat with little concern about cleanliness.

In fact, neatness, freshness and smart packaging are some of the words that they have learned to forgo in their line of business although they shout — “fresh fresh”, a marketing gimmick that they have mastered and internalised. At times, they run out of luck and have to part with the little money that they would have made so that they do not get arrested by oMakokoba.

According to Martha they make a minimum of $20 a day depending of course on the products on display and when days are good, they make at least $40, something that they dream they can make every day.

“OMakokoba constantly come and raid us of our wares and never bring them back. At times we are forced to pay fines. Some of them do not even agree to bribes especially if they are uniformed. It is sad that they do not know that this is our only way of surviving. We cannot even get licences so that we can operate legally,” she said.

And that they are selling the small packs of meat is evidence that some people are buying from them. They seem not worried about the health risks that are posed by the meat whose source and packaging modalities they do not know.

Whatever happened to the word hygiene and standard is any concerned citizen’s guess but the truth is that people are no longer worried about the hygiene of the food they eat.

Another vendor who identified herself as Siphiwe was quick to defend her trade.
“We are also human beings. We are not animals, we can’t deliberately let another human beings eat dirty stuff. Our standards are equally the same with those of butcheries except that we operate in the open. For a fact no one has come to us complaining of illness as a result of consuming our products and considering the way people continue to flock back to us it shows their confidence in us and our competitive prices” she said.

Meat vendors have become a constant sight on the streets of Bulawayo and they join many other vendors who have not been spared by the economic hardships and try to cushion themselves as informal traders.

According to statistics, at least 2 000 vendors were registered in June to operate in the city centre prompting the local authority to come up with plans to provide new vending sites although the move faced resistance as the proposed places are far from the market, far from human traffic.

Bulawayo City Council senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said meat was not permitted to be sold on the streets. She said only specific foodstuffs were allowed to be sold on the streets.

“No person shall hawk, expose for sale, introduce into the municipal area or otherwise deal in any meat unless such meat has been obtained from an animal slaughtered at an abattoir and passed fit for human consumption by a competent health inspector.

“The hawkers and vendors by-laws only allow certain foodstuffs such as fruits and vegetables, second hand clothing and odds and ends to be sold only at designated sites by licensed operators. Meat is not allowed to be sold at all by vendors,” she stressed.

Although most vendors are forced to pay bribes by the municipal police, Mrs Mpofu said municipal police officers were not allowed to take bribes from people, but instead should serve the people and the council as per their mandate.

“The people who have been asked for the bribes are requested to advise the municipality as we have zero tolerance for corruption,” she said.

The Bulawayo Entrepreneurs Association (BEA) president Mr Isiah Jonga said they have tried to address the plight of vendors with the council so that they are not harassed by municipal police officers. With council already proposing “Operation Return to Sanity” that is meant to remove all vendors from undesignated trading points strewn in the city, most meat vendors and other vendors are in panic mode as most do not know how they will raise money for school fees.

“We have tried to address the plight of vendors with the local authority so that these vendors are spared. They also have to raise money so that their children go to school. It is sad that we are now fast approaching year end and children will be back to school in January. The date has to be pushed to 20 January at least to allow these people to have time to raise money for their fees,” he said.