INFORMAL traders have accused the MDC-Alliance dominated
Bulawayo City Council (BCC) of politicising allocation of vending bays by
sidelining vendors with Zanu-PF links.
Speaking at a meeting with Small-to-medium enterprises
Development minister Sithembiso Nyoni, Provincial affairs minister Judith Ncube
and BCC representatives in the city, Bulawayo Upcoming Traders association
secretary-general Dumisani Ncube accused the council of not entertaining
vendors aligned to the ruling party.
"Some people failed to renew their vending licences
after threats that the council will confiscate their licences. You can take a
survey, the bulk of them are suffering because they are from the ruling party.
The reason is as you go to Makokoba at Fife Street, BCC officers are saying go
to Zanu-PF and we will see what it can do for you," he said.
"We have one member who was arrested when council
raided vendors and confiscated their wares where they were being evicted. The
vendors lost their vending bays."
Nyoni said registered informal traders were not political
entities, but economic entities that played a major role in developing the
country.
"Vendors are
not political entities, they are economic entities and for that matter, they
fall under my ministry, they do not fall under a political party. They are not
supposed to be mistreated because they belong to a certain party or others
treated well judging from which party they come from," she said.
Nyoni urged the traders to develop and advance their
businesses.
She said small-to-medium enterprises were not functioning
due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"We had stopped functioning due to the outbreak of
COVID-19. even now, some enterprises are still not functioning ... I want you
to go read Statutory Instrument (SI) 136, what the President said when he said
people who must return are informal sectors that are registered from designated
areas," Nyoni said.
"I have been consulting. We have a new strategy and
policy which the cabinet has approved following the SI 133. (On) local
authorities, the cabinet has stated that informal traders are supposed to be
allocated in their places phase by phase because they want to manage
COVID-19."
However, council engineering deputy director Wisdom Siziba
said they were introducing the suburban vending bays and allocations had since
started, adding the move would decongest the central business district. Newsday
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