Government last week gave Harare City Council a seven-day
ultimatum to decisively deal with vendors plying their trade at non-designated
spots.
Vendors 4ED national chairperson Samora Chisvo said they solely blamed HCC for the
outbreak of cholera.
He said they were not moved by the ultimatum.
“l want to be very clear, we are not fighting our
government but Harare City Council. In response to government ultimatum of
eviction of vendors, our position is
that vendors are not solely to blame for the cholera crisis, it’s an issue of
hygiene and involves everyone,” Chisvo said.
“Our appeal is long overdue and we don’t want to be used in
political wars where the Harare City Council puts conditions that affect
vendors. We are laying blame on Harare City Council, it is not collecting
refuse, we have no proper toilets, we have several storey buildings where
people are overcrowded,” he added.
"If we are going to be evicted, where are you going to
put us, Harare City Council should have decentralised long ago and now they
should give us places before removing us, for now we are not going anywhere,”
he added.
Mercy Makuwatsine from the HCC corporate division said she
was not in a position to comment before directing all questions to the head of
corporate communications Stanley Gama who was not available for comment.
The seven-day ultimatum has since passed and vendors are
still operating in various undesignated places especially in the central
business district.
It is not the first time the Zanu PF affiliate Vendors 4ED
have clashed with HCC.
Early this year HCC accused the organisation of illegally
allocating trading spaces to its members in the city under cover of the ruling
party.
Council accused Zanu PF of political grandstanding by
creating the Vendors 4ED ahead of this year’s polls to woo voters for the
ruling party. Newsday
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