By Leopold Munhende
NATIONAL Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) commissioner Obert Gutu has urged restraint in dealing with vendors, following a government order to flush them out of Zimbabwe’s towns.
Despite being an eyesore across most, if not all, central business districts (CBDs), Gutu said councils and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) should realise that desperation and an absence of opportunities were driving people to sell wares illegally on the streets.
Gutu posted on X, formerly Twitter, that no normal person would want to survive on vending deep into the night.
“Quite honestly, no normal person would prefer to be vending in the dead of the night in downtown Harare if they had a better alternative to earn a decent and honest living,” he wrote.
“As we prepare to clamp down on illegal vending, it would be very pragmatic for the responsible authorities not to use draconian and insensitive tactics to address this particular challenge.
“Surely, there is no need to use a sledgehammer to kill a fly. We need to exercise empathy and restraint as we move towards eradicating mass poverty in our homeland.”
In a scathing announcement of the impending clampdown, local government minister Daniel Garwe on Wednesday accused vendors of “perpetuating unsanitary conditions, worsening public health issues and creating a haven for criminal activities.”
“Government is directing all local authorities to clear vendors from undesignated points within 48 hours,” said Garwe.
A high unemployment rate and increasing levels of poverty, exceeding half of the population, have forced Zimbabweans, including graduates, onto the streets.
With few to no opportunities, the young and old have opted to survive by illegally selling goods in urban areas, including vegetables, second-hand clothes delivered via Mozambique from Europe, cooked food such as chicken feet, cigarettes, and sweets.
Added Gutu: “Most of these vendors are young people, young mothers and fathers as well as young school leavers and college graduates.
“The formal job sector, particularly in the private sector, has been steadily shrinking over the years and as such, the majority of job seekers (mostly people in the prime years of their lives), simply cannot secure jobs in the formal sector.
“The default mode will be for them to resort to the informal sector to sustain their livelihoods. As a result, we find our streets flooded with these young vendors who are trying to erk out a decent living.
“Put bluntly, massive vending as we are currently witnessing it, is a direct result of desperation as opposed to people just trying to be unruly and disorderly.”
Past efforts to rid the capital Harare and other centres such as Bulawayo of illegal vendors have failed.
Councils have either given up or totally lost the battle to the over a million illegal vendors across various cities.
The latest round, first announced by Harare City Council and later government, was expected to have started Wednesday evening.