Financial Gazette (Harare)
27 May 2005
Harare — VIOLENT law enforcement is a paradox by any definition. There is no doubt that something is seriously wrong when a police operation mounted supposedly to restore law and order results in mayhem and untold human misery.
But this is the only way to characterise the scorched earth policy adopted by the police when they descended on vendors in the City of Harare and its environs last week. The official reasons given for the massive clampdown on thousands of men and women going about the serious business of trying to eke out a living honestly in the prevailing economic shambles hardly justify the heavy-handed manner in which the law enforcers approached their assignment.
It was claimed in official pronouncements that the reason for the police raids was to flush out undesirable elements allegedly hoarding scarce commodities such as sugar and large amounts of foreign currency.
If this was the objective, how do the relevant authorities explain the fact that the police left countless vending sites in ruins littered with heaps of unsightly debris? Is the nation being told that Zimbabwean police are incapable of conducting an operation and effecting the arrest of suspects without burning down or dismantling structures?
The vindictive manner in which the exercise was conducted suggests that there was an ulterior motive for it other than the official explanations being offered to justify the mounting of the tumultuous "Murambatsvina" and "Restore Order" operation.
The Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, Ignatius Chombo in a press interview on Monday said the vending sites that had been destroyed in the clean-up exercise had become havens for criminals allegedly involved in selling scarce commodities and engaging in black market foreign currency dealings.
Denying charges that the ruling party was being vindictive because it had been rejected by urban voters in general elections held at the end of March, Chombo said the authorities had taken such drastic action because the situation in the capital had deteriorated to unprecedented levels.
He said the government was aware that many people made an honest living through street and flea market vending. "We do not want them to be disadvantaged. Government will make sure suitable places are designated for vending," he said.
With all due respect, it must be pointed out that the minister's pronouncements do not jibe with what is happening on the ground. If his statement that the aim of the raids is to flush out criminals and undesirable elements is to be believed, how does he explain the wholesale and indiscriminate expulsion of all vendors regardless of whether or not they were guilty of the offences cited as the reason for this drastic intervention?
The arbitrary penalising of all vendors for the sins of a few amounts to throwing out the baby and keeping the dirty bath water. The failure of the commission running the affairs of the capital city to maintain efficient service delivery can never be masked by these heavy-handed actions.
No one can deny that the streets of Harare, blighted by heaps of putrid garbage on almost every corner, have become an eyesore. But the point has to be driven home loud and clear that the problem the city authorities need to tackle is not the generation of garbage but its non-collection. The city council has failed dismally to deal with garbage disposal not only in the city center but in the suburbs as well.
The streets of most major cities both in the West and East are made more colourful and vibrant by the presence of hawkers and vendors selling food, vegetables, spices, clothing, newspapers, books - you name it.
These big cities, such as New York, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Beijing or Bangkok do not keep their streets clean by getting rid of the people but by having efficient mechanisms in place to keep things under control.
It is a shame that in the prevailing economic situation characterised by record unemployment rates and three-digit inflation, the industrious men and women trying to earn a living on the streets of Zimbabwe's towns and cities should be treated like criminals
Moreover, vendors have been a feature of the urban scene for almost a decade and have operated from officially designated sites. In Bulawayo, for example, vendors and hawkers sell their wares from well organised and clean sites, including one in the grounds of the city's Town House. Instead of being an eyesore, it is a splash of colour celebrating diversity and creativity, making it the favourite haunt of tourists.
The vending sites being burnt or demolished in Harare did not sprout overnight to justify the seemingly hasty and impulsive actions being resorted to.
Why should vendors in Harare be deprived of their only means of earning a living and providing for their families because of the failure of the City Fathers to proactively plan in accordance with new realities and dispensations?
In his statement on Monday, Chombo was at pains to stress that suitable new sites would be established for the vendors to operate from. But even if this were to be accepted despite knowing the snail's pace at which government projects are implemented, the question still remains why the informal traders were not notified in advance of these pending changes. How do the authorities expect these people to keep the wolf from the door until this infrastructure is in place?
If the government was indeed sensitive to the plight of the thousands of unemployed city residents who sustain themselves and their families through vending, it would have allowed them to continue working from the old structures until new premises were ready. It is rather odd for the officials to expect vendors whose stalls they have burnt and whose goods they have seized to believe that this is being done in their best interests.
The seizing of goods, regardless of their being in short supply, from people who are in the business of selling such commodities to survive, is also bewildering.
The lives of commuter omnibus users in Harare have also been complicated by the banning of emergency taxis from their usual pick-up points in the city centre in the ongoing blitz. In another display of gross insensitivity, Sekesai Makwavarara, the head of the commission running the city of Harare, only announced new terminuses designated for the various suburbs on Monday, after three days of total confusion and chaos. It is difficult to understand why commuters had to be inconvenienced this way when the new pick-up points could have been announced in advance through official notices in newspapers.
Because of the complexity of the innumerable problems needing to be attended to in this country, some officials have fallen into the habit of resorting to stop-gap measures simply to postone confronting the issues once and for all. But these time-buying tactics will not make the problems go away.
United Nations projections show that rural-urban migration will escalate between now and 2030 when the majority of the people in all parts of the world will be living in towns and cities. The economic hardships being experienced in Zimbabwe could already have triggered the beginnings of this trend. Urban planners in Zimbabwe may need to begin now to improve and expand infrastructure to cater for greater populations. Cities and towns should be kept clean despite the large numbers of people living in them. Banishing the people from city centres is not a long-term solution.
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