Members of the public have criticised the government’s seven-day ultimatum for vendors trading at undesignated sites in Harare and greater Harare province to leave by Wednesday, 9 September. Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe gave vendors operating at undesignated spots until 9 September to vacate voluntarily or face what the ministry described as […]
Members of the public have criticised the government’s seven-day ultimatum for vendors trading at undesignated sites in Harare and greater Harare province to leave by Wednesday, 9 September.
Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe gave vendors operating at undesignated spots until 9 September to vacate voluntarily or face what the ministry described as a “comprehensive, zero-tolerance clean-up operation”.
The operation will involve dismantling illegal vending structures, stalls and sites, and deploying municipal police to prevent cleared areas from being reoccupied.
Garwe said the operation was in line with the government’s national development strategy, which sets targets for a cleaner and more orderly urban economy.
“Whilst the government acknowledges the existence of informal trading as a recognised avenue of livelihood, this, however, should be within the bounds of municipal by-laws and at legally designated marketplaces,” he said, describing the current state of street trading as “disorderliness” that has “become a threat to the health and security of our nation.”
For many of those affected, however, vending is less about defying the law than about having no alternative.
Zimbabwe’s economy remains one of the most informalised in the world. Recent estimates put between 80 and 90 per cent of the working population in informal activity.
That reflects decades of deindustrialisation, company closures and a shrinking formal job market that has left millions without access to salaried work.
Vending and cross-border trading have for years acted as Zimbabwe’s default safety net in the absence of formal jobs or a strong social welfare system, absorbing retrenched workers, school leavers unable to find work and rural migrants affected by drought and agricultural decline.
Most people who commented on the development on X criticised the move, saying it would not work.
Gift Kugara-Mawire said: “This argument mistakes the symptom for the disease. Vendors did not destroy industry; deindustrialisation, unemployment, policy instability and economic mismanagement pushed people onto the streets to survive. You cannot ‘organise’ an economy by removing the poor from view. If government wants empty pavements, let it create full factories. If it wants fewer vendors, let it create more jobs. Chasing a woman selling tomatoes does not revive industry; it merely relocates poverty. Capital does not fear vendors. It fears unpredictability, corruption, weak institutions and policies that can change before the ink on an investment agreement dries. The streets are not the cause of Zimbabwe’s economic disorder. They are its receipt.”
Brenda Dube said: “How many vendors do we have on the streets? What are their reasons for vending, assuming that jobs are available in the industries? What plans are in place to assist the displaced vendors? Have new markets been found for the farmers who supply the vendors with the vegetables to sell?”
Tatenda Mangena said: “Will you not see one party youths occupying the streets in the name of order! With your experience, do you believe in this nonsense? Have you ever been in a small business where you rely upon 4 or 5 customers you got because of your proximity to their workplace?”
