The Sunday Mail
BRICK-AND-MORTAR, clothing and cellular phone accessory retailers operating within the Central Business District (CBD) are presently reeling from the current phenomenon where vendors have been given carte blanche to conduct businesses at spaces directly in front of their establishments by the Harare City Council (HCC).
While vendors have managed to attract significant volumes because of prices that are relatively cheaper than established businesses, small shops feel they cannot compete as they have to contend with both rentals and council licences.
HCC has so far approved 11 vending sites around the capital from where it has been collecting daily taxes since August last year.
It was generally envisaged that the re-organisation of the city could help bring back order within the capital. Presently, flea market operators pay US$3 daily for trading space, while fruit, vegetable, airtime, dried foods and newspaper vendors pay US$1.
The approved CBD vending sites include: Fourth Street (flea market, fruits and vegetables and dried foods), Charge Office ZRP Flea Market, Charge Office Vegetable Market (dried foods, fruits and vegetables), Julius Nyerere/Kenneth Kaunda (flea market), Market Square (flea market and dried foods), Speke/Cameron (flea market), George Silundika (flea market – Sundays only), Park Street (flea market and dried foods), Speke/Cameron (vegetable market), OK Cameron (fruit and vegetables), and Chinhoyi/ Samora Machel.
Harare has an estimated 12 000 vendors.
Already, 5 000 have since been allocated vending sites, while the remainder continue to play hide-and-seek with municipal authorities.
In October last year, Government gazetted laws governing the operations of vendors in Harare to boost council revenue, prevent disease outbreak and restore order in the capital.
Titled “Harare Vendors By-Laws, 2014”, the regulations, which are contained in Statutory Instrument 159 of 2014, empower council to set aside land or premises for vending.
The law, which replaces the old by-laws of 1983, provide for council to register vendors, set tariffs, police and fine them for failure to uphold the law.
Nonetheless, reports suggest that some vendors are not keen to apply for vending sites arguing that they are located in places that have little human traffic and generate low business.
This has seen vendors trooping back to street pavements and, in some cases, operating directly in front of licensed shops that sell similar products despite spirited efforts to remove them.
Last week, the Harare Informal Traders’ Association led by Mr Onisimo Gore launched an appeal to vendors to leave the streets and apply for slots on legal vending sites.
Mr Gore’s organisation claims to be an umbrella body for 20 unions representing Harare vendors.
Licensed traders are now complaining that vendors are accosting most of their customers, leading to waning business fortunes.
Mr Tawanda Danda, a manager for Wardmore Investments, which is located at the corner of Park Street and Nelson Mandela Way, last week said it has become difficult to operate in central Harare because of vendors.
He said most of the unlicensed traders were blocking the free movement of people.
“The other problem is that the vendors leave a lot of dirt in front of our shop and we will have to do the cleaning. They just eat their food and leave all the dirt; it is disappointing,” said Mr Danda.
Council spokesman Mr Michael Chideme told The Sunday Mail Business that council is “concerned that people paying their rates are being inconvenienced by those that do not”.
“The frontage of every shop is the responsibility of the shop owner. The shop owner can get a court order to bar vendors from operating from there because they are the ones who clean.”
While vending sites have brought a semblance of sanity, some traders in brick-and-mortar shops are unhappy that the sites are in front of their shops.
Clothing, fruit and vegetable, and cellular phone accessory retailers say they are losing business to the vendors in the approved trading sites because the shelters have eclipsed their shops.
Mr Faheem Younas of Payless Superstore along Park Street said he cannot complain much about vendors “apart from leaving the front of my shop dirty”.
“The flea markets that are put here on Saturdays give us problems. We are trying to engage council over the flea markets and very soon we will be going there (to talk to them).”
Traders at the corner of Speke Avenue and Leopold Takawira, where there is another vending site, are equally furious.
Mr Paul Manda of Megs Cell phones and Baby Wear said their fortunes are now on the decline.
“Our business has been affected because of this flea market (sic) and the vendors in front of our shop. We cannot compete with these guys in terms of pricing. For instance, they sell a (cell phone) pouch for US$1, which is not viable if we were to try it because we pay for council licences and rates.
“I feel rentals and rates must come down in line with our low business. We import clothes from South Africa and other countries and we can no longer sell them because these guys are selling second-hand clothes in front of our shop.
“I think council should move these vending sites outside town, for instance, to Mupedzanhamo (in Mbare) because there is a lot of movement and stealing here.
“We have tried to talk to council, but they say ‘it’s ZimAsset’. The ZimAsset that I know is good, not this one. Their tents are too high and we are no longer visible.
“The other important issue is that vendors in that tent and outside are relieving themselves all over the place because there are no ablution facilities and prospects of disease outbreaks are high.
“As a result of the bad odour, we are now forced to buy insecticides to kill flies that invade our shops. Maybe it’s high time we also start operating for free out there,” said Mr Manda.
Pema Investments official Mr Martin Rurevo, a clothing retailer, said vendors in the flea market tell their potential customers to get into his shop to compare prices so that they reduce the prices for them.
“What I am selling at US$20 can be reduced to as little as US$12 and clients of higher status no longer want to come here because they fear losing their valuables to thieves. We pay rent and licences to City of Harare and these guys don’t pay anything, so for them to be in front of our shop is unfair.
“Council has repeatedly said the problem is going to be addressed, but nothing has come up.”
