The Government has instructed local authorities to devise humane and dignified strategies to end street and night vending, instead of resorting to harassment or confiscation of goods.
Addressing Gwanda Municipality councillors and management at the council chambers on Friday, Minister of Local Government and Public Works Daniel Garwe said councils must restore order while respecting human dignity, particularly since most vendors are women and the elderly.
He urged awareness campaigns before implementation and called on vendors to respect laws and formalise their businesses. Said Garwe:
“This problem was created by the local authorities in the first place as they saw people moving into the streets and undesignated places to sell, but they didn’t reprimand them.
“People have been moving from other towns to Gwanda to sell at night. We want councils to be part of the solution.
“They should engage various stakeholders and come up with an implementation matrix that will be used.
“This process should be done in a phased approach where councils will start from the CBDs moving outward.
“These are human beings and residents and citizens of this country. People shouldn’t be harassed in their own country.”
Minister Garwe said local authorities must provide vendors with alternative sites equipped with water and sanitation, enforce by-laws on street and night vending, and ensure council police do not harass or confiscate goods.
The government envisions vendors eventually operating from state-of-the-art facilities, selling legal products. Said Minister Garwe:
“Street vending and night vending have caused problems, such as a threat to public health, due to the absence of ablution facilities.
“We need to protect public health by ensuring that we ban trading at night. Formal businesses are also now under threat because of illegal vending.
“The very things which they are selling in their business premises are being sold at their doorstep by people who don’t pay any rates. We must protect the business community.
“If economic players are being threatened, then this becomes a state of national security.
“The ease of doing business, which the Government is preaching every day, stems from these issues.”
Minister Garwe also said night vending has increasingly been linked to criminal activities, including drug and substance abuse, and therefore must be addressed.
