The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube and Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporters
THE City of Bulawayo is finalising the allocation of informal traders’ bays along the once congested 5th Avenue Market with 576 bays of the targeted 600 already secured, ahead of the reopening of the site.
The street has been closed for more than a month to accommodate cleaning of the area, demarcation of bays and construction of safe working spaces as well as re-allocation of vending bays.
At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, the local authority introduced a raft of measures aimed at curbing the spread of the pandemic, which included the order to shut down the open-air market along 5th Avenue.
The local authority even declared that the road will now be opened to the motoring public.
However, despite that directive, vendors seemingly ignored council and had increased their operations as they closed off the entire road, barring any vehicles from driving through the area or even finding any parking space.
The road was chaotic, with push carts and vendors displaying wares on the streets while others were in long queues to buy vegetables from the fresh produce shops.
The road had since been turned into a mini-market where one can get anything from vegetables to cooked food stuffs, groceries and even second-hand clothes were now being sold along the street, with some even displaying their merchandise from car boots.
To make matters worse there was little concern for hygiene thereby exposing the public to a health hazard, while others sold illegal alcoholic beverages and dangerous drugs such as marijuana.
In a bid to address the filth and chaos along 5th Avenue the local authority then ordered the informal traders to vacate the road to allow the implementation of the council resolution on the rehabilitation of the vending site and setting up of proper vending bays.
Responding to questions from Sunday News on the progress of the rehabilitation activities, the local authority’s corporate communications manager, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, said the works were now 95 percent complete.
“The City of Bulawayo Works Department has completed the rehabilitation works and the project — BCC allocates 600 vending bays along 5th avenue — has been handed over to the Town Planning Department for allocation of vending bays, with the aim to allocate 600 bays in total and we have already secured 576 of them. The process is 95 percent towards completion and we will announce the exact re-opening dates as soon as all the processes have been finalised.
“The City of Bulawayo is moving towards the final leg towards re-opening the market for business. The allocation of vending bays has been a transparent process, adhering strictly to council policy,” said Mrs Mpofu.
She said in allocating the bays, priority will be given to former vendors who occupied bays before the closure, to ensure a fair return for those who were compliant with licensing and monthly rental fees.
The council spokesperson also stated that they had partnered with all relevant associations operating in the city and 5th Avenue to compile a list of eligible vendors to ensure a comprehensive and inclusive allocation process.
“The City of Bulawayo recognises the significant demand for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) space, particularly within the Central Business District (CBD), in our informal sector-driven economy. To ensure efficient allocation of these limited resources, we kindly request all current tenants with outstanding rental and licence fees to settle their dues promptly.
“Unsettled accounts may result in the reassignment of their designated spaces to qualified applicants on the waiting list. Furthermore, the City is actively promoting the decentralisation of MSME activity to suburban areas. We encourage stakeholders to embrace this policy. A diversified economic landscape across various districts will strengthen Bulawayo’s resilience against future disruptions, similar to those experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mrs Mpofu.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor, Councillor Edwin Ndlovu, a couple of weeks ago toured the site to get an appreciation of the works that had been done to date.
Speaking after the tour, Clr Ndlovu said he was happy that work was progressing well, adding that they were now waiting for the Town Planning Department to complete the allocation process.
“We thought we could have a phased approach where we would remove some people in order to keep the road usable, have order and take others to the Bhaktas site. Once we have resettled them and we are in agreement with them through their associations, it will be easy for us to self-policy them through those associations then deal with those violating the by-laws.
“With the order that we are now bringing, they will now be able to pay to the council because with the disorder that was now there, people were no longer paying but at the same time, the market needed services. It was then difficult for us to service because we did not have the money to do so,” he said.
The development comes after a series of meetings held by the council and members of the Bulawayo Informal Sector Working Group.
The meetings re-emphasised the need for all the informal traders to have a valid vendors’ licence before they start operating in the city centre. Informal traders are required to pay a Central Business District (CBD) licence fees of US$23 per year and monthly rentals of $11,50 per month.
Those operating outside the city centre are expected to pay US$11,50 annually while paying US$5,75 monthly rentals.
