Harare City Council and the National Vendors’ Union of Zimbabwe
(Navuz) yesterday appealed to all illegal vendors to leave the streets
voluntarily to buttress efforts to contain the current cholera outbreak.
In a statement, council said vendors should relocate to their designated vending sites.
“Harare City Council appeals to members of the informal sector to
voluntarily move out of the streets of the Harare CBD beginning today to
designate trading sites,” read part of statement.
“This appeal comes in the wake of the cholera outbreak in Harare,
which is now spreading to other cities and towns and provinces. We have
taken this action in the interest of public health. We are in constant
engagement with the leadership of the informal sector to map sustainable
solutions.”
Addressing the media at Town House yesterday, Navuz president Mr Stan
Zvorwadza said it was imperative that action be taken immediately to
address health threats posed by cholera.
“However, the lasting solution is only that which is developed by the
informal traders for themselves. Anything that is developed for them
without their involvement will not be successful,” he said.
“Previous attempts to solve the issue of vending on the streets
without involving the informal traders have always turned violent and
not yielded the desired results and trading has increased drastically.
This is fact and on record. It does not pay to keep repeating the same
methodology and hope to get a different result.”
Mr Zvorwadza said Navuz proposes a grassroots-based strategy to deal with urban vending in a non-confrontational approach.
He said the strategy is rooted in persuasion and participatory
methodology in solving the vending crisis, which is prevalent in most
urban areas.
“The informal traders must participate in the mainstream economy
through participation in business contracts in all sectors. They must be
accorded a fraction of all mainstream contracts in order to support
their initiatives,” he said.
“Navuz has partnered with a number of institutions to see this
through to reality. We call for more support from central Government,
local authorities and private players if Zimbabwean urban landscape is
to be clean and healthy enough to attract business and investment.”
He said Navuz strategy proposes a 100-day period to start recording results from its initiative.
Mr Zvorwadza said if a portion of tenders were given to informal
traders that will go a long way in addressing the congested urban areas
since the majority of the informal traders have better economic
engagement alternatives than vending. Herald
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