The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Business Reporter
BULAWAYO councillors last week rejected moves to have rentals paid by vendors in the city slashed to $10, further barring those who sell phone accessories, cigarettes, watches, belts, sweets, matches and jiggies from operating along the city’s pavements.
The local authority, which has previously boasted of being pro-poor, threw away the proposal to have the monthly rentals paid by newspapers, airtime and periodicals vendors slashed to $10 claiming that this was going to be insincere.
The heated debate took place at a full council meeting at the council chambers which saw councillors instead agreeing that the vendors will have to now pay $15 a month from $1 a day. The issue was only resolved after the Mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo was forced to divide the house, imploring the councillors to vote on the two figures that had been tabled.
Before the voting process, Clr Moyo had warned councillors that it would be both dangerous and insincere if councillors voted to slash the rentals as the local authority would be forced to revise their $153 million annual budget.
“Councillors, let’s be very careful on the decision we shall take here because we already have a budget in place, if we slash the rentals to $10, it will be very dangerous and insincere because we will be clearly going against our budget projections. My advice to councillors who want to pass this resolution for the vendors to pay $10, they must bring this up during our budget consultations so that this can be noted when we come up with next year’s budget projection,” said Clr Moyo.
Ward one councillor, Clr Mlandu Ncube had brought up the issue saying while they appreciated the move for the local authority to peg the monthly rentals at $15, it was prudent to consider that vendors were already struggling to make ends meet hence the need to reduce the figure further downwards to $10.
According to the latest council report, the local authority was facing challenges in implementing the vending policy as there continued to be conflict between licensed vendors and formal businesses which has seen shop operators writing to council complaining of the presence of the licensed and unlicensed vendors on pavements and next to their shops.
“The selling of phone accessories, cigarette, watches, belts, sweets, matches and jiggies has seen vendors displaying large quantities of these goods. These are no longer small-scale vendors but shops that have relocated to the pavements. It has always been stated that a vendor sells a limited amount of merchandise and should graduate into a shop as he /she grows bigger naturally a person must move into a shop,” reads the report.
In the final resolution, the local authority agreed to recognise vendors who sell newspapers, airtime and periodicals at existing street corner vending sites at a charge of $10 a month, while those who sell phone accessories, cigarettes, watches, belts, sweets, matches and jiggies will not be allowed on pavements.
