Clearing Vendors off Harare Streets long over due

A walk along almost all streets of Harare in the central business district (CBD) is characterised by scores of vendors scattered all over the place lined up and clogging all the pavements and sidewalks displaying different cheap wares for sale, This is a real nuisance which has robbed the once sun shining city of its previous glory as it is reduced into a ghetto shanty town.

There is so much irritating hustle and bustle, and loud, unpleasant and tumultuous clamour and gibbering as the rowdy touts push and shove each other as they wrestle for commuters to embark on their vehicle. Alongside vendors there is the usual and routine cat-mouse chase featuring pirate taxi men which endanger lives of pedestrians and shoppers going about their business on the same streets.

This and other inundating reasons are mandatory demands for the removal of street vendors and pirate taxi men from the CBD. Action should be done now for sanity to be restored. Let's all bear in mind that the capital city is the face of the nation, and therefore, should not be left to be ruled by anarchy that is threatening peace and tranquillity in the daily.

Flooding of streets by vendors came along with a lot of illegalities which include obstruction, drug peddling, illegal use of city space, defecating and urinating everywhere as there are no ablution facilities positioned at every point where these vendors are flooded. In this vein, the capital city risks a perilous outbreak of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other vast array of disease associated with dirty and over-crowding.

Surely in the event of such unfortunate incidences, control would be a nightmare which may cost human lives. It is therefore mandatory to arrest this situation before we slump into calamities which we may regret and cost the nation fortunes. Prevention is best than cure.

The adamant stance maintained by vendors that they will remain on streets in spite all odds should be defied with contempt that it deserves. Are we aware that these vendors are also selling illegal and smuggled goods on these streets? The old clothes they sell which come in bales are smuggled into the country. Ideally, the state is under legal obligation to arrest and prosecute all these perpetrators. The state is somewhat lenient by asking them to disengage and retreat willingly without arresting them.

In principle the state has the natural power to use force to deal with recalcitrant citizens that defy its orders. This explains why the army is fully geared to deal with resistant citizens who dare challenging a state decision which is in public interest. Even if Zimbabweans were to be asked in a referendum whether vendors should stay on the streets or not, certainly no one would vote for them to stay.

To be fore-warned is to be fore-armed. One believes that patriotic citizens are busy wrapping up their business on the streets before expiry of the ultimatum by the end of this week. No amount of argument can justify the continued existence of vendors on the streets of Harare. It's time to open a new leaf and work towards development of the city. Neither is there any amount of political activism which can defeat the need to cleanse our city of this bedevilling problem.

Yes these people are unemployed but they should not use illegality to cover-up for that gap. There are numerous self helping projects that they can engage into to sustain their lives, and besides the city council is doing anything possible to relocate them to designated areas. All these vendors can do their vending in their respective locations after a business liaison with the council to enable them to secure places for their operations.

These vendors are enjoying an unequal contest in business as the formal businesses are deprived of business since they trade in front of their shops. Vendors will be selling similar products or goods at ridiculously low prices. This raises suspicion too as some of these products might have been stolen to enable them to sell at prices below the cost of production.

Formal traders are in real trouble as they are sustaining reduced business while they are faced by challenges to pay rentals, wages, bills, tax to government and to make profit. This has a negative direct effect of reducing government revenue in a big way in the form of Pay As You Earn and corporate tax.

The clothes manufacturing sector is under threat as cheap smuggled clothes floods the market at prices which are as low as 2 rands, 5 rands up to a dollar. The same applies to any other products which are traded illegally on the streets. This is the major contributory factor towards the economic recession and company closures as local markets are invaded by these smuggled products. This is high time that this nonsense is ended instantly to rescue the economy from further collapse caused by these people.

All citizens are urged to co-operate with government effort to end this anarchy which is ruling the capital at the moment. Good business can only flourish where all sources of illegalities are deflated and removed from the business environment.