OVER 200 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) on Wednesday protested at City Hall, denouncing Bulawayo mayor Martin Moyo and council for conducting early morning raids on street vendors.
BY SILAS NKALA
A fortnight ago, over 60 municipal police officers descended on vendors and conducted early morning raids where they confiscated wares worth thousands of dollars.
The Woza women led by Jennifer Willams and Magodonga Mahlangu picketed in front of council chambers, blocking the entrances. They later left the building littered with flyers inscribed with messages denouncing the entire council administration.
Woza said most of the affected vendors were their members, adding that for the past 10 days council police and the Zimbabwe Republic Police have been destroying vending sites and causing commotion.
“They beat people and blatantly loot goods from vendors. No audit of vending stands was ever done. New vending sites are being taken by people from other cities that were chased from their vending sites,” they said.
Woza said many vendors had lost their jobs and had no other means of survival.
“Some police officers seem to be making profit out of the looting of goods. There are no transparent receipts for the confiscated goods or even a known place where people can see their goods, claim them and pay a fine. We asked you to ensure ZRP must stay away from this issue and Municipal police do their work in a dignified manner,” the activists said.
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They accused Moyo of remaining silent during execution of the raids.
“Are you not ashamed of your promises you have not fulfilled? We demand sanity and dignity from you and your council police. Mister Mayor, you told us you wrote to Local Government, Public Works and National Housing minister Ignatius Chombo [then] telling him you wanted some time to allocate vendors stands. Now there is minister [Saviour] Kasukuwere,” Woza said in a letter to Moyo.
“Are you now Kasukuwere’s mayor or the mayor of the residents of Bulawayo? Why have you thrown the Constitution in the dustbin along with our rights to earn a living and trade? Should we now take it that you are no longer our protector and we must brace ourselves for another Gukurahundi and Murambatsvina?”
They demanded the council should receipt confiscated goods.
Woza also alleged council and some vendors’ associations had connived to charge vendors fees of up to $10 .
Moyo, however, said he had done everything in his power to protect vendors to a point where he even wrote to Chombo during his tenure, to seek extension of evictions from June to July.
Vendors trading in food were to be exempted from the extensions due to the high health risk associated with food.
“Council police are not evicting the generality of vendors from the streets. I think those complaining must be those selling foodstuffs such as meat and sadza. The council police are targeting those because food needs to be handled according to the health standards requirements. My instructions to my officers are that we cannot remove people from the streets unless we have a place to relocate them.”
He said evictions of the generality of vendors from the streets would only be possible when the council had provided the legal vending sites.
