Bulawayo City council slashes vending bay rentals

THE Bulawayo City council has reduced vending bay rentals in residential areas by 50 percent to encourage informal traders to take them up. The local authority is also considering designating vegetable wholesale markets in suburban areas to decongest the central business district which is being overrun by vendors.

The city has in recent weeks been clamping down brutally on vendors who are resisting efforts to relocate them to designated vending bays in the city centre. The vendors prefer operating from pavements and places of mass gathering like termini.

According to the latest council report, councillors resolved that rentals for vending bays in the suburban areas be halved from $10 to $5. "Council has resolved to recommend that vending bays in the suburban areas be halved from $10 before value added tax to $5. That the revised additional vending bays at Ascot, Babourfields, Barham Green, Bellevue and Belmont Industrial Park be approved and allocated to vendors," read the report.

The local authority also resolved to set up committees for the vending sites in order to maintain order and cleanliness. Debate over the vending bays ensued.

Councillor Mlandu Ncube said in some cases, council was failing vendors. "In some cases demarcations have taken long to be completed. There are genuine vendors who want to conduct their business activities from designated places. Registered vendors should be allocated their vending bays," said Clr Ncube.

Ward 17's Clr Ephraim Ncube said it was time for council to effectively enforce vending by-laws and bring sanity to the city. Clr Rodney Jele said enforcement had been suspended because vending bays had not yet been created.

"Vending bays have since been created and enforcement of vending by-laws should now resume. Allowing vendors to conduct their business activities in front of shops should be stopped because most shops are licensed and pay rates to council and as such they should be protected from unfair competition. There is a need to have a time frame for all this to happen," said Clr Jele.

Clr Silas Chigora weighed in saying there was a need to balance enforcement of vendor by-laws with the vendors' needs. "Council should control vending activities in the city, by now all registered vendors should be at their vending sites," said Clr Chigora. The Deputy Mayor Clr Gift Banda observed that a lot of businesses were now moving away from the CBD because of illegal vending activities.

"Council is failing to protect licensed businesses from unfair competition hence enforcement of vending by-laws should resume". In response, the Director of Housing and Community services, Isaiah Magagula, said that enforcements were generally effective.

"In the last enforcement blitz, a lot of revenue was collected and order was restored. Police also assisted in the enforcement of vending by-laws," said Magagula. Bulawayo municipal police yesterday raided scores of "illegal" vendors in the city and confiscated their wares in a move aimed at restoring order in the growing informal sector.

The crackdown saw a number of vendors losing their belongings to council police, while some ran away leaving their wares to be trampled on or confiscated.