Perm Sec orders DAs

Talent Simbi
Councils have been urged to build decent vending structures and stop harassing and chasing vendors from the streets when there are no alternatives for them to sell their wares.The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Engineer George Mlilo, said it was high time councils planned and designated strategic space for vendors in their respective towns.

“Vendors are there for sustenance and simply driving them out will solve nothing. You need to give them space. Don’t build structures or sheds in the bush where no one will go there. Bulawayo and Gweru have weekend shops where they would close some streets to give way for the vendors,” said Eng Mlilo. Mutare Mayor Tatenda Nhamarare confirmed the current scuffle with vendors and said they were working flat out on how best to avail the vending spaces.

“In Mutare we have vendors who are coming out of nowhere to sell their wares on our streets. Those with designated selling places will then abandon their places to compete for customers as their business would have been overtaken by illegal vendors who will be roaming the city.

The end result is chaotic and we have no option but move in to chase them,” he said. The Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Cde Mandi Chimene, said: “We have to close some streets for vendors during the weekends. Don’t put the market at the railway there; it will be a white elephant as no one will go there. The structure should simply be built nicely in the city centre so that it will not be an eyesore.”