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| Harare municipal police arresting a vendor (Photo: Zimbabwe News) |
Harare vendors have been at the crossroads in recent months but they have lately scaled the term up to a literal dimension.
The peddlers, frequently on the run as Harare Metropolitan Police is out to confiscate their wares, have resorted to using the intersection of Chinhoyi Street and Jason Moyo Avenue as their refuge.
In this deathly show of audacity, a group of fugitive vendors stand in the way of traffic, oblivious of hooting vehicles, to hold off baton-wielding municipal cops.
With traffic at a standstill, and breaths held as an undercurrent of jeopardy courses through the vicinity, the metro police officers finally disperse.
The municipal storm receded, vendors return to their street corners, pavements and verandas, spread out their bundled wares and resume business as usual.
This is just one of the daily occupational risks vendors deal with, or rather perpetrate, following their defiance of an evacuation order from the Harare City Council in July this year.
Artwell Musariri (29), who sells shoes and belts along Chinhoyi Street told Far South that vendors had opted for the ultimate risk because there was no other way to protect their wares from the frequent council raids.
“We know we are risking our lives by standing between the robots because there is no other way to remain in business,” Musariri said.
“I agree that this is not the most intelligent solution but there is no time to calculate risks if you work here. All I think of is moving with the group,” he said.
Musariri said whenever the alert is passed around that council is swooping on peddlers, his next instinct is to weave into the cover of the crowd no matter where it is headed.
“It is such a dangerous dare but most of us just run along because you become vulnerable to attack if you isolate yourself,” Musariri said.
However, this strength-in-numbers strategy only compounds the risk at the intersection, as hundreds of lives would be imperiled in the event of a traffic mishap.
While the vendors themselves risk being run over, confused motorists could easily trigger a chain of car crashes.
Police seem to be doing little to discourage the behaviour, which has since become a familiar sight, given the gravity of the traffic offense.
The situation is not helped by unpredictable and unruly kombi drivers who are used to blatantly flouting traffic regulations even in the most orderly setting.
With most traffic lights malfunctioning, and vendors playing the suicidal wager, poor trafficability remains a terminal headache for Harare.
Emergency transport for fire squads and endangered patients, entitled to ease of navigation, may also be unduly impeded by the commotion.
City fathers maintain that there are ten legitimate sites for vendors in the CBD. These are located along Simon Muzenda Street, Park Street and George Silundika; near Charge Office and OK Cameron; at corners Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda, Speke Avenue and Cameron Street, Chinhoyi Street and Samora Machel Avenue; and at Market Square.
Additional vendor booths have been rolled out notably at the Coke Corner, along Seke Road, but the vendors complain that the area is not populous enough for business to take up.
The turf wars and precarious survival strategies recently came to a head when vendors violently retaliated against a council raid along Angwa Street using stones and catapults.
Earlier this week police arrested 13 suspects for public violence and the destruction of property estimated at $76 thousand during the clash. Three months ago 29 vendors were arrested for brutally assaulting municipal cops.
Implicated vendors have been linked to the opposition MDC-T, but others selling adjacent to the opposition party’s Harvest House said they are not politically involved but are merely eking out the only available line of livelihood.
Charles Gambiza (35) complained that the municipal police officers are heavy-handed in their approach to vendors.
“The council police comes almost everyday to raid us and they are merciless in their approach. If they overtake a fleeing vendor, they mob him with their baton sticks as if they want to kill him,” Gambiza said.
“I myself have been beaten several times but I count myself fortunate because I have not sustained serious injuries like some of my colleagues,” he said.
Gambiza denied that vendors were politically affiliated and said he was on the streets for lack of alternative employment.
“I used to work at Bata but I lost my job in 2009. I tried looking for a job elsewhere but I gave up and making shoes. I would be happy to go to thriving markets in the CBD but I have not been able to get a place so I have resorted to selling in the streets,” Gambiza said.
Trymore Diza (45) said there must be a transparent code of conduct to govern how metro police deals with vendors.
“Most of the times, the items raided here end up being sold by municipal workers themselves. We make some of these things ourselves, so we can tell when we identify them elsewhere,” Diza said.
“Previously, council would return goods after payment of a fine but there came a time when it became difficult to recover all the items. The council’s word against mine would always work to my disadvantage as the council has the upper hand
“The situation has become worse over the past four months as council does not return raided items. They say we are not supposed to be in the CBD so they do not give us anything,” Diza said.
Another vendor, Tonde Marufu (30), said while the municipal police were discharging their rightful mandate in fining vendors, they did not have to delight in violence.
Marufu, who walks with a slight difficulty, showed this reporter stripes on his back which he said were a result of multiple beatings by the council police.
“My colleagues contributed for me to get treated. The reason why I come here though I have not fully recovered is that I have nothing else to do. I may be exposing myself to greater risk but this is the only job I have,” Marufu said.
Another vendor who declined to be named said stones used in the previous scuffle with municipal cops had been used to support newspapers and cloths on which vendors spread their wares on pavements.
He said vendors used cloths as a strategy so they can easily bundle all their wares and flee when council officers raid them.
Harare City Council spokesperson Michael Chideme recently condemned vendors’ violent resistance against municipal cops doing their work.
“We are worried about the lawlessness being expressed by these defiant vendors. We are not fighting vendors but they are on a mission to fight us, which is against the law,” Chideme told The Herald.
Chideme said several municipal police officers were attacked while one was hospitalised following the recent assault by vendors.
“With the way that these vendors are striking our police officers in the streets, it is quite clear that some of them have hidden political agendas that they are trying to push forward. We appeal to political parties to discourage their supporters and members from street violence and attacking the police officers as doing so only serves to tarnish the image of the city and that of the country,” Chideme said.
Harare City Council maintains that vendors are supposed to be at designated areas and those who remain in the streets will have their goods confiscated.
