Mtapa Market vendors face a bleak future

THE daily grind of Mtapa Market vendors in Gweru is becoming difficult with each passing day as sourcing and preparing goods to sell, attracting a steady stream of customers and generating income is now elusive.

Added to their woes is the unavailability of ablution facilities and vending stalls at the market.

Inadequate infrastructure, particularly around access to clean water and toilets has made their daily lives a living nightmare.

Multiple costs — including trips to the toilet and water delivery — cut into the vendors’ already meagre earnings.

Mtapa Market is a place for everyone; whether one is looking for fruits and vegetables, second-hand clothes or some traditional medicines.

There is so much going on at Mtapa where scores of people come through daily for one reason or the other yet the marketplace lacks basic sanitation facilities.

Established in 2020, Mtapa Market hosts sellers from as far as Chipinge and Gokwe selling bananas, sweet potatoes and potatoes to local buyers who are vendors at the market.

The market has become home to vendors who were once based at Kudzanayi Long-Distance Bus Terminus and Kombayi Market.

City of Gweru demolished all illegal structures at Kudzanayi Long-Distance Bus Terminus, Kombayi Market, TM local bus terminus and other undesignated vending areas with promises to provide the vendors with new vending stalls, ablution facilities and running water.

The decision followed a Cabinet directive instructing all local authorities to remove vending and flea market sites in the Central Business District trading under unhygienic environments as well as illegal structures as part of intervention strategies to fight Covid-19.

Government expected Gweru City Council to capitalise on the closure of Mtapa Market during the outbreak of the pandemic to give it a major facelift but this has not happened.

The market remains a sorry sight with no ablution facilities, no running water and no vending stalls despite being the most sought-after market in Gweru.

Mr Munyaradzi Mbaisa, a vendor at Mtapa Market said operating at the market is challenging because of unavailability of ablution facilities and running water.

“Lack of access to water and other sanitation facilities has affected us as vendors at Mtapa Market and that is obviously resulting in economic, health and environmental burdens that can have long-term consequences,” said Mr Mbaisa.

He said some vendors and clients were being forced to sneak into the nearby Mtapa Cemetery to relieve themselves.

“We now have people relieving themselves on graves at Mtapa Cemetery which is a challenge. We hope and pray that council deals with this issue as a matter of urgency,” he said.

Sold at the market is fresh produce from Manicaland and Masvingo provinces with prices and quantities for produce such as tomatoes, cabbages, carrots and sweet potatoes being negotiated with middlemen and stall-holders.

After sealing deals, the fruits and vegetables are off-loaded from trucks and money changes hands.

The same goes for poultry, leather products, factory-made goods, clothing, herbs and medicines and arts and crafts.

Mtapa Market ticks all year round, particularly during public holidays.

Mr Everesto Mbenjani, chairman of the Gweru Traders Association called on the local authority to expedite the construction of ablution facilities and provision of running water at the market.

“It’s been three years since we moved to this site and we still don’t have ablution facilities. It is challenging to be going elsewhere looking for ablution facilities when one has clients to attend to,” said Mr Mbenjani.

City of Gweru public relations and communications officer Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee said the local authority is working on the construction of ablution facilities and providing water and other amenities at the market.

“Preparatory work to provide proper amenities for vendors at Mtapa Market has started. We hope that by the end of the first quarter of 2024, we would have completed construction of proper amenities,”she said.

Ms Chingwaramusee said it is unfortunate that vendors and their clients have since resorted to relieving themselves in the cemetery.