×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Vendors, a reflection of a declining economy: Who is responsible?

Opinion & Analysis
Trading along the pavements of the streets of Zimbabwe abounds and is steadily increasing.

Trading along the pavements of the streets of Zimbabwe abounds and is steadily increasing.

Opinion: REINFORD KHUMALO

Unemployment in Zimbabwe currently runs at around 90%, and many have turned to vending for survival
Unemployment in Zimbabwe currently runs at around 90%, and many have turned to vending for survival

At casual thinking as one sees these street traders, one easily dismisses them as disorderly people deliberately bent on getting income their own way and unmindful of the nuisance they cause by crowding most of the pavements of cities through displaying their merchandise.

However, through careful thinking, one sees in these individuals, a legitimate motive of thriving to survive.

These are the people who want to make money, but have nowhere else to get it other than through selling the things of little value that they have acquired and have perceived to be on demand by members of the public.

They have identified opportunities and are, therefore, potential entrepreneurs; they don’t sit idle to beg or to complain about their plight.

They are the type of people who make things happen — a type of the uppermost level class of thinkers.

As we all know, there are three types of thinkers in the ascending order of the magnitude of thinking.

First, there are those on whom things happen, second, there are those who observe things happen and just keep quiet and last, there are those who make things happen.

Among the latter are genuine liberals — those who never keep silent at the face of a wrong. From such people, we all learn something. They are prone to share their views and ideas.

National economic causes of street vending

Unemployment in Zimbabwe currently runs at around 90%. Many key industries have closed down.

Factory infrastructural facilities in many urban centres are now rented by churches because they have been empty and unoccupied as a result of divestments.

Our major parastatals such as the National Railways of Zimbabwe, to name just one, that used to employ large numbers of people, are ailing and have their infrastructure run down.

They are operating at losses and have, thus, restructured and cut down the numbers of employees.

Young graduates fresh from colleges and universities yearning to apply their newly acquired ideas hardly get employed. The liquidity of the banking sector falls far short of the demand by the public.

Disposable income to inject demand for the supply of goods and services is very low. It is a vicious circle.

When street vendors have their meagre merchandise confiscated by local authorities, the economic situation gets exacerbated.

The little income vendors would have gotten is mostly consumed without inclusion in the economic cycle as a result of the confiscation.

The economy further goes down as a consequence. Chinese products are cheap and easily obtainable by local consumers.

They are in all types, ranging from textile products to heavy electronics equipment. Can local industries survive faced with competition from these Chinese suppliers? The answer is a categoric, no!

Who is responsible?

Who is responsible for this economic morass? The responsibility of any government of any country is to, among other key things, provide the economic climate that is conducive for industries to thrive, to create employment for the country, to improve the standards of living for its citizens through infrastructural development i.e, establishment of good roads, setting up of high-profile institutions — hospitals which every citizen can opt to go to for treatment and schools and institutions of higher learning that everyone in the country can choose to attend and also to protect its industries.

These are the things that bring pride to the nation. We shall always feel inadequate and would have pseudo-pride as a nation for as long as we go for treatment to other countries because our hospitals are not adequately equipped or do not have good enough facilities for us to visit them or stay there to get treatment.

For as long as we shall send our children to attend schools and universities in other countries because our institutions of learning are not good enough, we shall be despised by those nations to which we send our children.

Space and time do not accord me the liberty to discuss all the issues highlighted above despite their high significance.

Let me, therefore, focus on the plight of street traders and what suggested solutions could be provided for them to alleviate their problems, so that in turn we could all be helped as a nation.

Street trading harmonises with the findings by Mitchell Dunier, 1999, (Source: Social Research Methods — Quantitative and Qualitative Research — Seventh Edition – W. Pearson Neuman.

Pearson Education Publication, 2014.), where the researcher critiques the “broken window” theory of social control and crime where some people see trading on the streets as deviant and encouraging crime because the vendors’ lifestyle does not relate to that of the middle class and lawmakers, whereas, in reality the vendors are engaging in a rich informal social life with honour and dignity and entrepreneurship. They are striving for a life of economic independence.

The laws and regulations of government and local authorities, therefore, threaten to destroy the fluid and healthy informal social structure because they do not understand the life on the pavements.

It should be noted that some street traders migrate their businesses to formal businesses over time.

There are some in life who have started this low and have eventually become big formal business owners.

Suggested solutions

Chinese imports need checking. No local industry can survive as long as the Chinese freely dump their finished products into this country.

Import controls for infant industries that have a potential of producing quality products and services should be protected.

This could be done selectively for a start to allow for the maintenance of the standards of living for the local citizens.

Government ought to invest heavily on infrastructure — there should be a cut on salaries of chief executives of parastatals — more so that these parastatals are not performing.

Our ministries are too many for the size of the economy. Some of them should merge.

In doing this, tradition should not be the guide but rationality, practicability and economic affordability should be considered.

Some partnerships between government and the private sector should be tried in an effort to deliver quality services, e.g, hospitals for them to provide excellent health services.

In order to rejuvenate the economy and to improve the gross domestic product of the nation, merit should be the criterion for employing people.

There are thousands of people who are in positions for which they do not qualify in this country and, as a result, the standards of services are falling and productivity drops sharply.

A revelation this week on Zimbabwean television that of the Harare City Council’s 1 000 workers in their employ, 800 have no “O” levels is a tip of the national iceberg.

The Harare City Council scenario is a microcosm of the whole country, including government departments.

In conclusion, street trading is not the cause of the economic downturn of this country, but the result.

The course of these traders could correct itself if government takes some corrective measures to improve the economy as suggested above.

Reinford Khumalo is a Professor of Business Leadership and Organisational Behaviour. He is a Business Consultant serving many organisations and institutions of higher learning within and abroad in the designated area of his expertise including strategic management. He is also a keen supervisor of PhD students. He can be contacted through e-mail: [email protected] or +263 77 9544208 or +263 71638 3944.