A SHOWDOWN looms between Harare City Council and thousands of unregistered street vendors who have declined to take up vending stalls at council-designated points citing high rental charges by the local authority.
Phyllis Mbanje STAFF REPORTER
Council has given vendors up to February 2 to register and move to 11 designated selling points or risk arrest and confiscation of their wares.
President of the Harare Informal Traders, Onisimo Gore, told NewsDay yesterday that his organisation had carried out several campaigns to persuade the vendors to register and operate at designated points but the majority had defied the calls, saying they preferred to conduct their business in the streets.
“Most of the vendors were openly against the council initiative which will force the vendors to go to designated points and pay monthly rentals,” Gore said. “The vendors are worried that selling is their only means of survival and if they are chased from the streets their families would suffer.”
However, secretary-general of the Harare Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises, Shepherd Sirewu, said: “There has not been enough awareness done and some of the vendors do not understand the whole concept of this move and will naturally resist.”
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Council spokesperson Michael Chideme said he would provide the finer details of the planned blitz in due course.