Sundaymail Editor
Sunday Mail Reporter
IT is just after 5am and Mr Jonah Chiwerere, a farmer from Uzumba parks his truck close to Matererini block of flats in Mbare waiting for colleagues who have gone shopping at the sprawling Mbare Musika market.
In the dead of night, he travelled a two and a half hour journey from Mutoko to bring the tomatoes to the market. About 150 empty boxes of tomatoes are stacked at the back of his two-tonne truck, after he sold his produce around 4am.
One would expect Mr Chiwerere to be all smiles after completing his sale, but he is disillusioned by the deductions that he has been forced to make soon after the sale.
“We have been made to pay US$4 to enter the market. We also paid US$6,80 for every 50 crates of tomatoes,” he says.
While Chiwerere is not overly worried about having paid the tax at Mbare Musika, he is concerned about whether the deductions have been paid into the right hands.
“The transaction was oral. I did not receive any receipt or proof of payment.”
This is the scenario that confronts many farmers, vendors and other traders at Mbare Musika who are paying tax to a cartel of space barons that are not remitting revenue to the Harare City Council.
Investigations by The Sunday Mail revealed that Harare City Council is losing millions of dollars in potential revenue due to the space barons.
To prove that the transactions are duplicitous, The Sunday Mail discovered that there are discrepancies on the amounts charged by the space barons.
Another farmer, Mr Gift Muranda, from Nyabira, who spoke to The Sunday Mail revealed that he paid US$5 for every 50 crates of tomatoes, lower than the US$6,80 charged to Mr Chiwerere.
The former was worried that he did not receive any receipts for the transaction.
“One has to pay US$5 even if they have less than 50 crates; they only accept payment in United States dollars.”
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Michael Chideme acknowledged that space barons were a thorn in the flesh at Mbare Musika.
“We are aware of these space barons,” Mr Chideme said.
“They have hijacked the Mbare Musika market and they operate as a cartel. They threaten our municipal officers and they collect tax from traders,” he said.
Asked what the Harare City Council is doing to address the situation, Mr Chideme said:
“When it comes to the farmer’s market, we charge them daily, each truck that comes is charged upon delivering their produce. Market stalls are charged monthly, but those with market stalls sometimes lease out their spaces, charging per day. It is difficult for us to control them in such a scenario.”
Mbare Wholesale Market chairperson Tichanzwana Chibika says Harare City Council is partly to blame as some officials are involved in the illicit tax-collection web.
“There are times that council workers complain their systems are down at Mbare’s Remembrance offices. During this time, they will give you handwritten proof of payment. The money will not reflect in your council account number,” Mr Chibika explained.
“When you want to make a follow-up on the issue, they will make the process long so you can be frustrated and eventually give up.”
Mr Chibika said there are some new stalls that have been illegally constructed just outside Mbare Musika.
“The chain of informal stalls occupies a kilometre-long stretch from Mbare Food Market to Remembrance Drive. Stalls outside the market pay US$1 per day to council officers and unknown space barons. These funds do not go to council’s coffers,” he said.
Research by The Sunday Mail revealed that there are 152 stalls within the wholesale market with over 3 500 retailers in the retail market.
Of concern to many is the fact that money raised from the traders at Mbare can be easily channelled to refurbish the market.
Despite generating millions per day, the Mbare market remains an eyesore as it has not undergone any major refurbishments.
Basic services such as toilets and clean water for traders are not available at the market, making it a ticking time-bomb for diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
The water facility in the retail market is a relic of what used to be a functional water system.
Twisted tap heads dangle, facing parched concrete water basins.
“The whole Mbare market needs revamping,” says Mr Erasmus Fofo a retailer,forcing words out of his cloth face mask.
“The ground is usually clogged with mud. Someone can easily lose a limb trying to walk in such conditions.”
Taxpaying retailers like Mr Fofo have lost hope that the market will ever be revamped.
Many share the view that with all the money that it generates, Mbare Musika should undergo a face-lift, but the porous tax system at the market means that Harare City Council will be hard-pressed to achieve such a make-over.
This story is published under the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) Investigative Journalism Fund with support from the European Union (EU).
Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter