A Bulawayo City Council (BCC) operation to remove street vendors from the city centre descended into a standoff after Patriotic Vendors4ED leaders and ruling-party officials intervened, accusing the local authority of failing to provide alternative trading spaces.
The confrontation erupted as municipal officers moved to confiscate goods during an enforcement blitz in the central business district.
The operation was halted last Wednesday when Patriotic Vendors4ED national chairperson Sawu Jere arrived and held discussions with officials and traders.
Jere accused the council of mishandling funds meant for the Bhaktas vending site, which was designed to accommodate some 1,400 unregistered traders.
“We understand that part of those funds may have been redirected to the Highlanders Flea Market at the corner of Fife Street and Connaught Avenue,” Jere said.
“What we have at Bhaktas now is only resurfacing, with no proper structures and no toilet facilities. It is an eyesore and unusable.”
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Jere called for a national strategy rather than forced removals.
“The council has complete databases of vendors,” he said. “The solution is to allocate them to strategic sites along customer footpaths, not to chase them away.”
Bulawayo Zanu-PF provincial commissar Douglas Gangaidzo criticised the council’s timing in removing vendors from the streets without providing alternative trading spaces.
“We are supposed to be in dialogue. So why confiscate wares when we are still waiting for dialogue?” he asked.
Patriotic Vendors4ED provincial chairperson Jonas Chiro said Bhaktas had been diverted from its intended purpose and was now being used as an illegal rank for commuter omnibuses. Zanu-PF Nehanda district chairperson Josiah Mutangi urged direct engagement with traders.
“What we need now is dialogue and coordination,” Mutangi said.
“Vendors must be at the table as we map the way forward.”
The standoff follows last week’s council briefing to Provincial Affairs minister Judith Ncube and the Joint Operations Command, where deputy mayor Edwin Ndlovu and town clerk Christopher Dube outlined plans to partner with the private sector on waste management in the city centre. Vendors have frequently been accused of littering the city.
Dube said the proposed relocation exercise was backed by research identifying designated sites for orderly trading.
Ncube stressed that “the situation cannot be allowed to continue” and called for coordinated action.
Stakeholders resolved to convene an emergency planning meeting to map modalities for relocating informal traders, aiming to improve sanitation, reduce congestion and restore order in the city centre.