THE City of Harare has created a new municipal police unit tasked with raiding illegal traders and arresting litterbugs in the central business district.
This emerged during a meeting held at Town House yesterday, where mayor Jacob Mafume said council wanted to restore order in the city.
“We have created a special unit in our municipal police, that is going to be enforcing anti-litter by-laws,” Mafume said.
“Certainly, in other countries, you don’t roast maize in the middle of town and so forth.
“These are the things that we are going to be planning back on with the special units of the police to make sure that the areas are clean.”
Mafume said the municipality was committed to ensuring that informal traders are allocated safe and proper vending spaces.
“We need to have some streets where we do not permit anyone to sell anything in the market or anywhere and then other streets we can agree, after consultation with the informal sector and the residents, where we can allow them to be able to do the same implementation for designated areas, so that we can establish policies,” he said.
Combined Harare Residents Association director Ruben Akili said council was to blame for lawlessness in the city centre because of its failure to provide alternative vending spaces.
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“The local authority probably spends more on enforcing rather than constructing markets,” Akili said.
“It is very important that resources are channelled towards building markets in areas where these people can be allowed to do their work.”
With companies closing shop and job scarcity, the majority of Zimbabweans are resorting to informal trading to feed their families.
There are no statistics on the number of informal traders in the capital, but estimates point to several thousands.
