The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
THE Gweru City Council is constructing a new vending and flea market site in Mtapa which will accommodate 4 600 vendors and small businesses while the long-distance bus terminus has also been moved to the same site.
The Government recently gave a directive to local authorities to clear all illegal structures and unhygienic vending sites in the Central Business Districts and construct modern structures as part of the fight against coronavirus.
Gweru Mayor Councillor Josiah Makombe said the vendors have been relocated to Mtapa where they are preparing a space close to the cemetery where the local authority also intends to construct a new bus terminus. Clr Makombe said the new site would be ready by next week.
“All the vendors are being moved to Mtapa. More than 4 600 vendors and small businesses will be accommodated there. The area that we have moved them to had been earmarked for the construction of a long-distance bus terminus.
“The set up in many towns and cities is that long distance bus terminuses are not in the CBD. So this is what we are also doing. We will also put up new and modern structures in town to accommodate a limited number of these small businesses but the majority will remain in Mtapa. Construction has already started and we are hoping that we will complete preparing the area next week.”
Clr Makombe said the place would also have temporary long-distance bus terminus for the next six months while Kudzanayi Long Distance Terminus would undergo renovations. He said part of the terminus would be converted into a Zupco rank.
“We are also moving long distance buses to the same area because our intention is to renovate and upgrade Kudzanayi Bus Terminus. The exercise will take more than six months. We have areas such a TM Bus Terminus where there were vending and flea market stalls. That rank has been permanently closed and all the vendors and public transport operators who were there have been permanently removed. At Kudzanayi, we have also removed all vending and flea market stalls and transformed the area into a Zupco bus terminus. It used to be a Zupco bus terminus before and now we are handing the terminus back to the public transport operator because it has resumed its operations in local routes,” said Clr Makombe.
