“I’M friends with the monster that’s under my bed”, goes the word of a popular song by American rapper, Eminem, a 15-time Grammy winner.
The song continues: “Get along with the voices inside of my head; You’re tryin’ to save me, stop holding your breath; And you think I’m crazy, yeah, you think I’m crazy.
Informal traders in Zimbabwe are finding out the hard way just how crazy this monster called Zanu PF is after being given 48 hours to vacate the streets from where they make a living.
Even styling themselves as Vendors4ED to curry favour with the ruling party ahead of the 2023 general elections is not going to save them.
On Wednesday, Local Government minister Daniel Garwe issued a directive to local authorities to remove illegal vendors from the streets, saying they were not only operating in unsanitary conditions, but were also engaging in criminal activities.
Garwe said local authorities “will be supported by law enforcement agents to ensure the maintenance of law and order”.
What came next was a 48-hour ultimatum to vacate the streets.
Zanu PF’s misrule has led to a high unemployment rate, with many of those who find themselves jobless turning to vending or informal trade as the only option out.
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Ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections, those operating from Siyaso informal market in Mbare, Harare, were told to register and vote for Zanu PF in the country’s most populous residential area, which was their ticket to retaining their stalls.
In the run-up to the same elections, Zanu PF’s aspiring legislator for Epworth North constituency Taurai Kandishaya argued that the projects undertaken by Mnangagwa’s administration over the past five years have created employment for 2,7 million people.
However, the situation on the ground reveals a different story.
The number of people erecting illegal stalls along the streets in residential areas, in formerly heavy industrial sites or even in the central business districts tells a story of unemployment in communities.
Reminds us of past events when former Highfield legislator Psychology Maziwisa said Zanu PF did not promise formal employment, hence the informal employment citizens were finding themselves in was also part of Zanu PF’s unspoken of promises.
Now, those who form the informal sector, many of them vendors, are the ones being chased away into poverty.
There is a high number of nocturnal vendors in most cities and towns around the country, many of them avoiding clashes with municipality and police officers during the day.
Some of these vendors are trying to supplement their meagre earnings.
They have been taxed heavily and are trying to recoup wages lost to taxes through vending or informal stalls.
Unfortunate for them, government has other thoughts.
Some of the country’s companies have closed down, retailers are closing shop, jobs are being lost, worse with powerful economies cutting spending on poor countries such as Zimbabwe.
Fingers have been pointed at some of the people in power today as the reason why some of the companies failed and closed shop in past years.
This has seen a rise in the number of people turning to informal employment to look after their families.
The official unemployment rate in Zimbabwe, according to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, was 20,5% for those aged 15 and above in the first quarter of 2024.
Other statisticians put the figure higher.
In essence, Zanu PF’s misgovernance has landed Zimbabweans in the cesspit they find themselves in.
In the past, it has given home seekers land on private or council land, only for their dwellings to be razed to the ground.
Informal employment is creating a problem for the party every other time after elections.
The central government and the local authorities must come up with new land for informal traders, where their operations are legal, and where they have clean ablution facilities.
Also, the situation will remain the same as long as those in power make decisions from their air-conditioned offices and enjoy their à la carte dishes at pricey joints without the real experience of the suffering masses.
Decision-makers most likely do not have an idea what it means to go to bed on other days without having taken a single meaningful meal the whole day.
Hence, people in power should not make knee-jerk decisions without taking into regard what effects they have on the ordinary person.
