The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
FROM a distance, 5th Avenue — the fresh produce market place in Bulawayo looks smart, vehicular movement is a little defined and orderly now but the same cannot be said for human traffic which has remained almost the same, leaving people questioning the wisdom of efforts to decongest the road without enough resources.
Although all the road lanes are now in use, the vending tables and tents pitched on metal rods that used to define the bigger part of the road are no longer there. The avenue is however, still very far from being like other avenues and streets in town and indications are that it will never be.
The road is still bustling with activity. The scourge of coronavirus and the lockdown regulations have done little if not nothing to deter people from coming into town and trade their wares. The vendors have just moved from blocking the road to blocking the pavements. Push cart operators and woman with cardboard boxes are the order of the day. They still crowd the market place where small fresh farm produce shops litter the sprawling avenue for farm produce that they resell in locations.
But those that were used to trade in town just waited for a relaxation of the lockdown rules and they flocked back to town where they are playing cat and mouse with law enforcement agents with the hope that those mandated with the job of keeping them away will get tired or they will simply befriend them through kickbacks.
“We can’t sell our wares in western suburbs. People don’t buy there. We have established a large clientele base in town where we do our orders and sell without hustling for transport. And besides how does the city council relocate us from somewhere to nowhere. We need to fend for our families, this is the only honest way we have been doing it but now we came back to this and there was no formal communication whatsoever on the way forward. Our authorities should simply consult widely and not capitalise on Covid-19 to do things without proper planning,” said a vendor Ms Tania Ncube.
Asked if they were not afraid of Covid-19, she said their position was no longer one of comfort but they were like the meat in a sandwich as they struggle between feeding the hungry families, paying rentals, bills and the need to keep healthy.
“What it means is that you weigh. Whether to stay home and die of hunger or go out to fend for family where the probability of contracting the virus is not known but assumed to be low. People are not coming to town for the fun of it. They have circumstances pushing them and authorities need to understand that and at least bridge the people’s efforts,” she added.
She said in as much as they appreciated the grim effects of Covid-19, they have to balance it with the need to make ends meet in their daily lives. Ms Ncube urged the authorities to move with speed in the allocation of space saying they would welcome it if they were going to get vending places not very far from the CBD where they would be easily accessed by customers.
Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube in a statement said the city council had come up with a number of initiatives to operationalise the pronouncements made by the Government although he admitted that they were short of resources and infrastructure and would engage private partnerships.
He said 5th Avenue was going to be re-opened for vehicular traffic movement while the Khothama Tower Block weekend and holiday vending had been abolished and decentralised to suburban shopping centres in line with social distancing and other Covid-19 health requirements.
“Such vending sites include Lobengula Mall, City Hall Sites and TM Hyper Pick ‘n’ Pay among others,” said Mr Dube.
He added that all informal traders who were operating along 5th Avenue will be relocated to vending bays near their places of residence where the current vending records would be used to assist the relocation process.
He noted that council had identified Wholesale Distribution Centres (WDCs) for fresh farm produce around the city — some of which were privately owned where arrangements were being made to engage the private owners on modalities of operation.
“Some WDCs lack complete requisite infrastructure that fully comply with Covid-19 health requirements but the same shall be treated as work in progress. In view of the foregoing, council is open for all forms of partnerships. It shall come up with standard designs in consultation with the relevant stakeholders to be used for vending shades to ensure affordability, functionality and aesthetics. Once the vending bays in suburban shopping centres are clearly demarcated, the same shall be allocated as per council policy also observing those currently trading on given sites and the displaced lot.”
Vendors however, said while it had become common knowledge that such projects by council take long to complete, they were in the mean time prepared to engage in running battles with law enforcement agents.
“We have seen them doing that with illegal money changers, but now it looks like they are in good books. We are going to do that as well.
What we want is to fend for our families,” said another vendor who only identified himself as JB.
The Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) in a statement said although they appreciated that there was a favourable clientele in town, relocation of vendors was going to help ease transport costs and reduce cases of mugging.
“We have observed that the flocking into town was a result of a planning conundrum. If producers were directed to deliver their farm produces in designated townships and warehouses, our membership would not be flocking the CBD to order goods or sell because wholesalers will be accessible in townships.
“Thus, we believe that the relocation of vendors and traders will help reduce cases of women getting mugged or harassment in the wee of the morning, as they rush to the market to order goods for resale. Most of the people familiar with informal trading in Zimbabwe know that scores of people, including women, leave their homes as early as 4am to order vegetables for resale. This move in our view has a potential to reduce cases of women abuse, as they are majority players in the sector,” said BVTA in a statement.
