Vendors union director and 14 others remanded in custody

STATEMENT – A Harare Magistrate has once again deferred the bail ruling for the National Vendors Union Zimbabwe (NAVUZ) Chairperson Sten Zvorwadza, Director Samule Wadzai and 14 other vendors to Monday the 20th of July 2015.

If the bail ruling is eventually given on the 20th, it would have taken the vendors a full week before their bail application is finalized, which, according to their defense counsel, is a flagrant violation of their constitutional rights as enshrined in Section 49 (b), Section 50 (1) (c – e) of the supreme law of the land.

As if that is not bad enough, the vendors who have been injured are still without access to medical attention. Although Magistrate Tendai Mahwe gave an order that they be given access to medical attention, nothing has been done so far in that respect and their wounds continue to rot in detention

NAVUZ views the violent evictions of vendors from the streets, their harassment, arrests and confiscation of their goods as a sacrifice of livelihoods on the altar of cleanliness. Surely we cannot have clean cities when thousands of our citizens are dying languishing in poverty and starvation.

The government must address the root causes of the problem rather than its effects. What is government is doing is tantamount to killing flies to stop the rot. What boggles the mind even more is that the government is arresting even those vendors that are registered and are paying taxes to the municipality but are waiting to be allocated spaces in the designated vending sites.

The ongoing operation runs contrary to the national objective provided for under Section 24 (2) (b) of the constitution, which obliges the state and all agencies of government to remove restrictions that unnecessarily inhibit or prevent people from working and otherwise engaging in gainful economic activities and section 13 (1) (a) which obliges government to promote private initiative and self reliance.

No form of violence will deter vendors from pursuing their livelihoods and these arbitrary, cruel, inhuman and barbaric treatment of vendors will only galvanize their unity against such efforts as would deter them eking out a living in these harsh economic circumstances.

It is unfortunate that this is happening when NAVUZ is calling for dialogue between all the stakeholders in the vending enterprise to find a long lasting solution to the vending problem.

Information and Publicity Department
National Vendors Union Zimbabwe (NAVUZ)