Bulawayo vendors cry foul

Vendors at the  Sekusile Shopping Centre in Bulawayo  have  expressed concern over  Bulawayo City Council's failure to establish vending bays, a situation they say has resulted in them playing 'cat and mouse' with the police.

In interviews with The Zimbabwe Mail on Wednesday, vendors at the market said there was need for the local authority to allocate vending bays at the site.

"The city council should make plans for us to sell freely without being chased (away) by the police," said one of the vendors, Henry Moyo.

"We come here daily to find ways of sustaining our livelihoods and when we are chased  (away) by the police, we feel really harassed."

Moyo said the shopping centre was already "over-populated" in terms of informal trading and council needed to find ways of extending it to accommodate all the vendors in the area.

"We are from this area (Nkulumane) and if we continue to be harassed and made to pay fines of $5 each time we are raided by the police, then how will we pay our rentals (sic)?" he asked.

Another vendor, Yeukai Chiuke, said the local authority should realise that vendors were conducting their work at the market because they needed to sustain their livelihoods.

"We come here to sustain our lives and we sit here all day selling tomatoes and get $4 at the end of the day, but police demand $5 from us. What do they expect us to do. Life is difficult here and we sell tomatoes because that is how we can get money," she said.

In the city council's latest report, councillor for Ward 24 Gideon Mangena was concerned about littering at Sekusile Shopping Centre, caused by vendors, which "was now an eyesore".

"They were also reluctant to use the public toilets in the area resulting in fouling of the shopping centre. The situation had gone out of control as there was an unpleasant smell," said the report.

The report said there was need to educate residents on hygiene and cleanliness in order to avoid the spread of diseases.

It said there was an urgent need for council to take appropriate action and enforce its by-laws.

Ward 20 councillor, Earnest Rafamoyo indicated that arrests needed to be carried out on the littering public as an ongoing exercise to discourage this "anti-social behaviour".