daniel chigunweThe Rhodesia Herald
19 February 1979
HARARE MUSIKA will soon have a new open-air market. Salisbury Municipality is spending more than $100 000 to make this a reality.
Work is well under way tarring a 1,9-hectare area east of the existing covered market. Before the municipality stepped in, this site had been “colonised” by hundreds of illegal marketeers selling their wares in makeshift stalls.
Being close to the bus terminal and the city, the site was like a magnet, drawing people to the open space, made vacant by the demolition of Old Bricks Location in 1971. As a result, illegal hawking flourished.
However, the need for more marketing facilities could not be overlooked because informal marketeers were providing an indispensable service to the public, unsatisfactory it was.
Salisbury City Council therefore decided to have the site developed as a market. This open-air market complex will have about 1000 retail market bays, 3m by 1,5 m in size, marked in white paint. They will be let to retailers for 10 cents a day.
About 88 bays will be reserved for vehicles of produce wholesalers at a charge of $1 for each load delivered.
The bays will not be restricted only to the sale of vegetables and fruit. For public convenience, the municipality is renovating an existing toilet block and a new one is being built. Adjacent to these will be five external sinks for washing vegetables.
The municipality plans to enforce strict control giving the public an un- precedented service similar to London’s Petti- coat Lane.
Online Reporter