Whither Sunshine City?

respect the aesthetic value of the environment but even the different players who are expected to rebuild the beautiful city following a decade of disinvestment.
Harare, which was formerly referred to as the “Sunshine City”, has honestly lost the glamour, which used to make it one of the leading cities in Africa.
A tourist guide of the 1990s is portraying a completely different picture from the real state of affairs at present.
The question hanging in people’s minds is what is being done by the Department of Local Government and Urban Planning to avert the imminent chaos that is being induced by the chaotic and illegal trading activities which characterises most of such underground activities.
How practical or feasible is it to have a successful empowerment policy when the business of grey deals is still defining the direction of economic activities?
Can the disadvantaged old woman from Mufakose or Epworth appreciate the tone of empowerment when she is more content in spreading her wares at the doorsteps of OK or Spar outlets which brings more business than setting up a shop somewhere in Chirorodziva?
It is also surprising that the amount of revenue such traders are amassing per day is way below the social cost they are imposing on the city.
A walk along First Street makes someone who left the city a decade ago gawk; it is a completely different story with most of the hawkers parading their belts, imported stockings, compact discs, shoes, medication, textbooks, cellphones and lines.
While the Harare City Council has tried to deal with the issue through sporadic raids it appears the task is beyond their control. This is in contrast to the ease with which they slashed maize in the high-density suburbs.
Our last research indicated that for every four Zimbabwean urbanites, only one could distinguish between the duties of a policeman and that of a municipal policeman.
There is no room for them arguing that the running battles they always fight with the public are failing to bring results.
As the economy is recovering, we also need to see a positive response in our malls and streets, it is quite rare to think about the menacing effects of ill-behaviour inflicted by these street wise traders.
Some of them are so involved in pilferage activities and surprisingly they use hawker’s baskets and wares as a haven to hide their loot.
With the coming of Easipark in the urban parking space management, we thought the touts who specialise in unsolicited business of “guarding” vehicles in the streets would be a thing of the past.
But alas, they seem to be competing for revenue with both the city council and the parking management company.
Where is the law when people are trading their wares at every corner of the city without a licence, residents will always find means to beef up their meagre incomes but it is up to the city fathers to correct such acts in both the economic and social environment.
It is totally unjustifiable to argue that such trespassers have to continue strewing the streets with their wares simply because they cannot secure jobs.
The Government cannot also afford to remain mum when the city is burning, due to unemployment which is astronomically high, more than 75 percent of traders in the CBD are involved in underground activities on every single day.
This means the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority cannot account for their activities.
This has continued to scare away bona fide investors since the environment is not conducive for business.
In this regard, the Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and his team should have a real and practical grasp of the underground economy in order to be well informed going forward.
They should come up with the best model to use in empowering the already tax-avoiding and evading populace.
To bring sanity at Ximex Mall today will be viewed by some as a ploy to chase them away from the complex but for how long can we continue seeing business activities being disrupted by shady dealers at their doorsteps.
We must be tired of a “photocopy economy” and have to substitute it with the “printing economy”.
Indigenisation cannot be allowed to work if it is to substitute banks with micro-finance institutions, hypermarkets with corner shops, international colleges and schools with unregistered private colleges.
We cannot allow First Street to be a belt-vending street like we are witnessing today.
For every three people who are living above the Poverty Datum Line, our research states that only one is prepared to do shopping in the CBD.
The rest are much more comfortable spending their incomes in more organised shopping complexes such as Avondale, Westgate, Sam Levy’s, Arundel, Fife Avenue and other more friendly spots within the metropolitan city.
How business activities are carried out should send helpful signals to the authorities on how feasible it is to entrust the 75 percent plus of the populace when they are used to being unaccountable to the local authority which is hosting them.
A month ago we witnessed the re-emergence of flea markets notably along Park Lane downtown and Speke Avenue but they vanished in the blur of a moment.
Could it be that the city fathers alongside their responsible ministry realised the eyesore and cracked the whip? To build policies in a market like the one dominating urban zones will be tantamount to lip-sync.
This is simply due to the distortion of the transmission mechanism in trying to correct the economic ills.
This has also seen urban decay taking its toll on most of the city buildings going on without repair and maintenance, the burning of waste is posing a health hazard at every corner of the city.
What irks most is that even members of the force are sometimes seen buying the pirated discs in the streets.
Who is then going to police the police and other members of the law? There is a serious need for a cleansing exercise of our streets and if possible budget for designated stalls where traders will sell their wares.
One goes to Roadport and most of the dealers are most comfortable trading their currency in front of a bureau de change.
The emergence of the informal sector in an economy with more than 80 percent unemployment is not a strange phenomenon but the depth of unaccountability and intractability for the Zimbabwean informal economy leaves a lot to be desired.
All the policy pronouncements will remain idle talk as long as the chaos and “mayhem” characterising activities in Harare’s streets are not nipped in the bud.
Thank you and God bless you.
Quote of the Week: ” Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.” – Dale Carnegie.
Christopher Takunda Mugaga
Head of Research
Econometer Global Capital
[email protected]
+263 772 340 353, +263 776 266 062