More and more tents are mushrooming in the Harare city centre as vendors set up stalls to sell their wares. Despite the government complaining that it is not collecting any taxes from informal traders, tents are being erected in the city on a daily basis provoking the question on whether the country has now descended to unprecedent levels of lawlessness where citizens just pitch tents anywhere or if there are other powerful elements behind the erection of these tents.

Some of these tents have ruling party colours suggesting that someone high up in the corridors of power is aware of who practices vending in the city centre.

Vendors say they pay a fee on a daily basis to agents of people who have erected these tents. If you don’t pay, then you cannot trade from the comfort of the tents.

But despite the tents being erected everywhere, council authorities and revenue authorities claim that they are not getting anything from the vendors. Who are the tent owners?

So where is the money that the vendors are paying to the tent owners going to? An intricate web os space lords is operating in the city centre and profiting from the desperation of these vendors.

It is unfathomable that anyone could erect a tent in the city centre without the blessing of the authorities. These are the authorities who a receiving money that should be going to central government.There are those profiting from this whole situation and in the process promoting lawlessness.

Vendors insist that they pay rentals to unnamed party activists and council officials for the use of this town space. This means that there are individuals who are running a parallel council and pocketing proceeds.

Surprisingly , the relevant authorities have not acted. Have they lost control of the situation or someone in the high offices is personally benefitting from the chaos?

Some council workers we spoke to who have their own space they rent out in Harare street said they had not been paid for a long time so extorting money from vendors was their only way of putting food on their tables and paying their bills.

It seems the plan to build proper structures for vendors is being resisted from within by rent seeking council and political leaders who extort rentals from the vendors. These have a vested interest in the perpetuation of this chaos for their private profit.

If council was serious about restoring order in the city centre they could have easily done so. Zimbabwe is not the only country with vendors. Vendors can also be found in London or New York but the authorities there are in control of the situation. There is serious vending in Ghana. Infact I have written before that big compasnies such as Delta, Econet and Dairiboard owe their success to vending. Why hasnt Ignatious Chombo or Augustine Chihuri sniffed out the ‘space land lords’ who are the real merchants of chaos in the city centres?

Instead of allowing vendors to operate anywhere, authorities could simply confine all vendors in one street. For example Innes Terrace or Chinhoyi Street could be prepared as the only streets that vendors can operate in . It could create some order in the city centre.

Such a move would allow the municipality to control the vending and also be able to systematically collect rentals and other taxes from these vendors. It would also deal with the chaos that is threatning to go out of hand.

Already the carts being used by vendors in the city centre are a traffic danger especially at night where they are not visible. Government must impose that these carts be fitted with reflectors and registered with the road agency. They must also be insured.Such moves could be a source of revenue for central government but most importantly restore order and avoid impending disaster in the
city roads.

Vending is not unique to zimbabwe although the high unemployment rates makes ours a more unique case. The problem is not with vendors but
with the various authorities that have failed to craft policy to deal with these realities. In the long term the government must create an environment where sustainable jobs can be created.

By Malvern Mkudu