THE anti-riot squad yesterday fought running battles with vendors, dispersing them from streets and preventing them from conducting a planned clean-up campaign.
VENERANDA LANGA
National Vendors’ Union Zimbabwe (NVUZ) chairman Sten Zvorwadza said vendors had gathered at the corner of Samora Machel Avenue and Chinhoyi Street where they had planned to begin their clean-up exercise in the morning before anti-riot police dispersed them.
“Thousands of vendors had turned up for the planned clean up exercise, but members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police riot unit were unleashed on them and they had to disperse,” said Zvorwadza.
“As an association we are questioning the ZRP mandate in this country which is suffering from fiscal problems because they deployed 50 police officers to disperse over 5 000 members of our union who had gathered to do a good thing of cleaning up the city as a way of showing other vendors that they should engage in responsible behaviour.”
Zvorwadza said as a union they were still trying to engage the police and City Council to find a win-win situation.
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“City of Harare’s method of registering vendors to sell at designated points is lengthy, expensive and vendors spend the whole day queuing to get permits to sell their wares. There are long winding queues and some vendors pay for the receipts at 4.00 pm and they end up selling nothing,” he said.
When NewsDay visited the NVUZ offices yesterday, anti-riot police in baton sticks were outside the building, while a group of disabled vendors had sought refuge inside the office.
A vendor, Luxon Rusike, said they had gathered in the morning to do the clean-up campaign when anti-riot police pounced on them.
Alice Mabiza, another vendor said the council designated points at Fourth Street Market, Charge Office, Speke Avenue/Cameron Street, Park Street, Market Square and Rezende Street/Kenneth Kaunda Avenue were overcrowded and there was no space to display wares.
“They are forcing us to leave the streets and go to designated vending points, but they are overcrowded. We are made to pay $1 for registration as vendors and $3 per day for vending space, which is too much for us,” she said.
Shepherd Mukucha, another vendor said there was only one toilet for males and one for females at the vending points, adding it was unhealthy.
However, Harare province police spokesperson Inspector Tadius Chibanda said the issue was purely a City Council one.
“The riot squad was only there to stop a demonstration which the vendors were planning to do in the streets. They had not followed the proper procedures to undertake demonstrations and that is why riot police dispersed them,” Chibanda said.