The police will continue to patrol the streets of Harare while confiscating wares of those vendors resisting relocation to designated vending sites.
“We have commitment from the Zimbabwe Republic Police that they are going to assist our municipal police until the situation reaches a sustainable level. The relocation may take some time but we anticipate that the situation will settle down,” said Harare City Council (HCC) town clerk Hosea Chisango.
Police banned food vending in the capital recently in a bid to curb cholera.
Since then, vendors have been engaged in running battles with the law enforcement agencies, resisting relocation to designated vending sites outside central Harare.
Meanwhile, council is in the process of registering vendors to occupy designated vending spaces while ensuring that the sites are well-resourced in line with its 100-day plan.
The 100-day plan, launched by Harare mayor Hebert Gomba last week, seeks amongst other things to provide running water and toilets for all markets in the central business district.
“We have basic infrastructure on the two vending sites that we have opened. There is running water and there are toilets, though they are inadequate as the number of vendors continues to swell. We will be looking into increasing that capacity. The streets in which they are operating from don’t have any facilities so they are not meant for vending,” said Chisango. DailyNews