By Lance Guma
HARARE- The Harare city centre was briefly turned into war zone on Wednesday after street vendors clashed with police trying to close down their stalls. SW Radio Africa understands around 10 police officers surrounded vendors between First Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue.
Vendors were furious at having their wares impounded and retaliated by throwing stones.
Onlookers joined in the fracas and before long things got out of hand. Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us the police beat a hasty retreat, with the vendors in hot pursuit. One of the officers fell to the ground and the vendors caught up with him and beat him severely. Muchemwa said he was badly hurt.
Riot police were called in as re-enforcements and they fired tear gas but the vendors retaliated by picking up stones and pelting the ‘wooden cabin’ police post along George Silundika and First Street. Muchemwa spoke to some of the vendors, who questioned the role of the Zimbabwe Republic Police in cracking down on them when it was the role of Harare City Council police to monitor their activities.
Not helping matters is the fact that the police are now also running flea markets in Harare.
On Monday SW Radio Africa reported how Police Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri, defended the flea market which the police are running at the Harare Central Police Station car park. Despite having no council approval, vendors are paying police to set up at the flea market. There is a cash office in the car park that takes this money.
Chihuri claimed there was nothing illegal about the flea market and warned the City Council against trying to close it down. Despite using space owned by the council and not paying for it, Chihuri has told city fathers that whoever wants to shut down the project would ‘meet me head on’.
The irony is that in 2005 Mugabe’s regime destroyed so-called ‘illegal’ houses and market stalls belonging to hundreds of thousands of people under the controversial ‘clean up’ dubbed Operation Murambatsvina. 6 years later the police are busy putting up and running ‘unsanctioned’ illegal market stalls.
Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us it would appear the police, by cracking down on the vendors in other parts of Harare, were trying to get rid of any competition.
Similarly, it was revealed that the recent police crackdown of what they claimed were un-roadworthy commuter omnibuses, was because many senior police officers are running their own fleets of commuter buses. Their vehicles never get impounded by the police and always go through roadblocks easily.
With no rule of law in Zimbabwe Mugabe’s supporters are being given free rein to make money any way they want, creating in-fighting for lucrative areas of ‘business.’ This creates desperation in those struggling to survive in this system and the decision by the vendors to fight the police mirrors the desperation that later brought down the government of Tunisian President Ben Ali.
Twenty-six year old fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after a municipal inspector seized his wares. Bouazizi’s attempt to overcome his poverty was halted by an officer claiming he was working without the necessary legal permit. The anger and subsequent protests over his death led to President Ben Ali fleeing the country and his regime collapsing. SW Radio Africa
