Traders want more working space

Conrad Mupesa

Herald Correspondent

Informal traders in Mashonaland West have called on Government to assist them in ensuring that local authorities allocate them more land to work from.

The traders, who were drawn from all seven districts of the province, made the call during a stakeholder’s meeting with Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Development Minister Stembiso Nyoni in Chinhoyi.

Some of the informal traders said they were affected by the Government directive for local authorities to destroy informal markets to pave way for the construction of proper structures.

Minister Nyoni said it was unfortunate that most informal traders and SMEs were affected by the directive which was done in good faith, as it was aimed at regularising working spaces within towns and growth points to curb the spread of contagious diseases like Covid-19 and to ensure the formalisation of the informal sector.

“SMEs are an integral part of our economy and because of that they need to be formalised,” she said. “The move by councils was aimed at providing spaces that have enough amenities, including ablution services.

“We also need to protect and improve images of our urban centres. Through the new regularisation exercise, we expect council to provide work space to SMEs and various traders in line with their type of businesses and not in a haphazard manner.”

Minister Nyoni said her ministry was in the process of distributing tents to traders in urban centres for use as temporary work spaces.

“For now we are going to provide tents and movable toilets as a temporary measure to cushion our traders who have been affected by the regularisation exercise,” she said. “We, however, call upon councils to provide water in areas where these tents will be pitched so that we promote good hygiene and minimise the spread of diseases.”

Minister Nyoni said her ministry was geared towards improving SMEs and informal traders from the grassroots.

She expressed concern over the increase in cases of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and early child marriages and called on communities to be gender sensitive.

Minister Nyoni called on women to take an active role in politics as statistics indicate that only 13 percent of council seats countrywide were occupied by women.

Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Mashonaland West province, Mary Mliswa-Chikoka, urged SMEs to formalise and regularise their enterprises so that they can be allocated land and places to operate from by councils.

Minister Mliswa-Chikoka, who is also provincial chairperson for lands commission, assured hard working women farmers that they will get pieces of land after the downsizing of farms.