BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) is redesigning vending bays at Egodini terminus following complaints from informal traders that the bays are not user-friendly and are too small.
Speaking during a Bulawayo informal sector survey meeting on Tuesday, Bulawayo mayor David Coltart said he had noted the concerns of the vendors.
“At Egodini as you have seen we have opened phase 1A and we are about to move to phase 1B. We are pleased to tell you we have really started to implement some of these measures in anticipation of the outcome of this report to improve the working conditions for vendors,” Coltart said.
Egodini re-opened after an eight-year closure to pave way for a multi-million-dollar rehabilitation project.
In 2016, council entered into an agreement with Terracotta to redesign Basch Street terminus to a multi-purpose mall at an estimated cost of US$60 million.
Coltart said phase 1B would provide more sanitation facilities, access to water and enhanced security.
“What we have now done is we changed the design completely.”
He admitted that the vending bays constructed under phase 1A did not provide a conducive working environment.
There were reports that Zanu PF space barons had attempted to grab vending bays at Egodini and allocate them to party activists.
However, the local authority stood its ground.