Harare municipal police put on 24-hour duty to clear vendors from CBD

Three hundred City of Harare municipal police officers will work 24-hour shifts to stop illegal vending, pushcarts and other unauthorised activities in the city centre under a crackdown code-named Operation Chenesa Harare.

Under the operation, informal traders operating from undesignated areas will be removed from the city centre and directed to approved trading sites.

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume said the council had noticed a gap in enforcement after officers knocked off at 5 pm.

“We have noticed that there is a lacuna where our police officers are finishing their work at 5 pm,” said Mafume.

“We are going to institute 24-hour patrols and regular patrols around the city so that there will be continuous policing 24/7.

“We must not restrict our municipal police to working during the day, and all hell breaks loose after they knock off.”

Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe said the operation, being carried out in partnership with the City of Harare, is part of a broader Government programme to restore cleanliness, order and healthy living, and is not just in preparation for a forthcoming international event.

“People must go to designated areas, and this programme is not targeted for any major event that is likely to come, no,” he said.

“This is the life that we must now be accustomed to, of cleanliness, of orderliness, of reorganising. That is the new Zimbabwe now, and Harare will never be the same again from today going forward.”

Garwe said the operation will start in the central business district on Robert Gabriel Mugabe Road before extending to other streets including Samora Machel Avenue, Julius Nyerere Way, Leopold Takawira Street and the Avenues area.

He said pushcarts will also be removed from the city centre as they are contributing to congestion and disorder.

“No to selling mangoes, oranges, clothes or shoes. No to plying trade in the central business district. And no to pushcarts in the central business district,” he said.

“Those pushcarts are contributing to confusion, to commotion, to traffic jams and many other ills. So, we want to deal with that.”

Garwe said the clean-up campaign will be extended beyond Harare as Government seeks to enforce uniform standards of cleanliness and order across the country.

More: The Herald