VICTORIA FALLS residents have appealed to their local authority to be allowed to mount vending stalls at the gates to their homesteads to counter Zambian vendors, who have come up with aggressive methods of selling their products.
By Nokuthaba Dlamini
The Zambian traders’ aggressive marketing methods that include door-to-door hawking, even at business offices, have angered local vendors, who say they are being pushed out of business.
“Could you allow us to sell our vegetables and other small wares in our houses, as you just admitted that ratepayers were drawn from the informal business?
“We want to be able to raise money for rates while we fend for our families,” appealed one Mkhosana resident during the 2018 consultative budget meeting.
“Chinotimba Tavern Market and Comesa Flea Market attracts little business and you keep pushing us to go there, yet Zambians make money going to houses without any revenue collected.”
Another said: “We have been outsmarted by the Zambians. We wonder why they are allowed to move door-to-door selling their goods here which include illegal substances, yet you arrest us and forfeit our goods if we do the same.”
The traders, commonly known as mzanga in the Chewa language have embarked on door-to-door sales of illegal substances such as abortion pills, sexual enhancing products, skin bleaching creams, virginity soaps and herbal medicines, while also selling second-hand clothes and mealie meal.
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Zambian informal traders are taking advantage of Zimbabwe’s multicurrency system to import various goods for resale.
They are given temporary gate passes to cross into the country after Zimbabwe and Zambia in 2014 jointly launched the pilot Uni-Visa, which is aimed at enhancing movement and trade between the two countries.
In response, council said it would look into the vendors’ appeal.
