POLICE in Bulawayo yesterday impounded scores of pushcarts which are popularly known as scanias at the fresh produce market between 4th and 5th avenues.
The pushcart operators carry goods mainly for vendors from
the market to various destinations in the city and charge US$1 or equivalent in
local currency for a trip. There was drama as the scania operators fled,
leaving their carts behind when the police pounced.
The officers did not bother chasing after the pushcart
operators but instead loaded the carts in their trucks and took them away. When
the operators later regrouped, they told Chronicle that pushing scanias was the
only job that they knew.
“We know there is Covid-19 and we know authorities think
they are doing this for our protection but the truth is that we live from hand
to mouth. If we do not work, it means we will not eat the next day,” said a
pushcart operator who declined to be named.
Another who only identified himself as Dingi said police
usually release their pushcarts after paying an admission of guilt fine of
about $1 000 for each pushcart. He said on a good day, before the initial
lockdown in March last year, he could make up to US$30.
“We have to make a choice between staying at home and
starving . . . It is for this reason that we are pleading with the authorities
to appreciate our plight. We should be considered an essential service because
we have to fend for our families despite the pandemic,” he said.
Mr Vincent Dube said the police action was meant to reduce
crowding at the marketplace as many of the people causing congestion were
pushcart operators.
“It will be difficult to maintain social distancing with so
many people at the marketplace hence this police action. We need few people to
be at the market to buy food items and go home if we are to contain this
pandemic,” said Mr Dube.
When asked why they fled and abandoned their carts, a
pushcart operator said he feared arrest.
He said what they normally do is that after police have
impounded their carts, they then follow them up at the police station to pay a
fine and get back their carts.
“If you are arrested without a fine, you will rot in police
cells and that is what we are avoiding by running away,” he said.
Police are clamping down on residents who defy the stricter
lockdown measures which came into effect early this month.
Vendors were banned from the city centre but surprisingly
at the market it was business as usual yesterday.
Vendors and pushcart operators were playing hide and seek
with the police and many of them said they would rather risk arrest than starve
at home.
Many were arrested but it seems the arrests are not
deterrent enough as minutes after the police raid, new vendors are seen
displaying their wares on the streets and canvassing for customers. They now
display just a few items which they quickly grab and run away at the sight of
police officers.
Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico
Ncube said pushcart operators were not exempt under Level Four national
lockdown hence the arrests. “They are violating outlined lockdown regulations.
They have not been classified under essential services providers. We are not
just rounding up pushcart operators but arresting everybody violating lockdown
regulations,” said Insp Ncube. Chronicle
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