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Source: ‘No place to sell’: thousands hit in Zimbabwe clampdown on street vendors | Reuters

CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When police backed by armed soldiers arrived at the market in Chitungwiza in early February, Lilian Kashamba was reminded of her childhood during Zimbabwe’s war for independence.

The 48-year-old widow, who had sold vegetables, maize and chickens from the council-owned venue for 15 years, pointed to a heap of rubble where her stall once stood, and told how vendors were given 30 minutes to pack up and leave.

After that, the market was demolished by officials from the council, which has not yet said what it will do with the space.

“From my sales here I raised three children. With no place to sell, I don’t know how else to care for my one last child in primary school,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The demolition of the Zengeza 4 market was one of a number of actions by local authorities – backed by security forces – against thousands of vendors and informal traders in the capital Harare as well as in other cities and towns this month.

Lovemore Meya, a spokesman for Chitungwiza council, said the clampdown in the town about 30 km (19 miles) south of Harare was a joint effort by local authorities, the police and the army to remove illegal structures and businesses.

But Kashamba and other vendors told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they had paid weekly rentals for their stalls and shops to an intermediary, who had not given it to the council.

The market’s destruction followed a spate of violence that rocked the southern African nation in January when a three-day stay-at-home strike was called after President Emmerson Mnangagwa raised fuel prices.

The protests led to mass arrests and a security crackdown.

Zimbabwe has been on edge ever since, with residents and other witnesses saying police and soldiers conducted night-time raids on many homes and removed and beat alleged protesters.

Meya denied the exercise was politically motivated, saying it affected all vendors and did not discriminate on party lines.

‘URBAN RENEWAL’

Some traders likened the destruction of stalls to the government’s 2005 slum-clearance operation called Operation Murambatsvina, which meant ‘Drive out the filth’.

Joshua Mukungati, 25, who sold furniture out of Zengeza 4, said he had been paying $10 a week to the council and did not understand why he had been evicted and his shop razed.

“It was brutal. We were given only given 30 minutes to remove our wares … we lost valuable property,” he said.

“I don’t have anywhere to sell, and have to keep some of the sofas at my lodgings. The sad part is the authorities have not given us an alternative place to work from.”

Meya, from Chitungwiza council, said some people had sublet market space and were collecting rent without giving it to the council but added the exercise was also about urban renewal.

“People were just erecting structures everywhere and conducting their business anywhere, including along roads, and council was not getting revenue due,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“Harare is doing the same. They started their operation in October following communication from the ministry of local government to spruce (up) our image to attract investment.”

Harare mayor Herbert Gomba told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the law clearly stated where people could trade, and citizens should comply in order to protect public health.

He added that notice of the evictions in Harare was given ahead of time and traders had been offered new locations.

However, traders said that was not the case, according to Samuel Wadzai, the director of the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET), a Harare-based group.

‘DEFENCELESS TRADERS’

Demolishing vendors’ stalls without notifying them or offering them a new place to do business was “barbaric and inhumane”, the Chitungwiza Residents Trust (CHITREST) said.

CHITREST director Alice Kuvheya said the group realized that local authorities were obliged to maintain cleanliness.

“(But) we note with concern the use of the armed soldiers to deal with defenseless traders, who were making an honest living through vending and informal work in a very challenging economic environment,” Kuvheya told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Meantime, Wadzai of VISET said more than 2,500 informal traders and vendors had been affected in the capital, and up to 800 more in Gweru, a city about 200 km (125 miles) southwest.

He said the situation in Harare, Chitungwiza and elsewhere remained tense with many vendors traumatised and fearful of being confronted by soldiers if they returned to former sites.

Instead of cracking down on innocent citizens, he added, the government should recognize the informal sector was key to Zimbabwe’s economy and implement policies to reflect that.

“Over 90 percent of the population is surviving through the informal sector, so there is need to review policies like the criminalization of street vending,” he said.

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Harare – Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has said the country’s inflation rate, which surged to the highest annual level since a hyperinflation blowout a decade ago, is being misread and the measure of monthly [...]

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) are set to conduct door–to-door searches countrywide to look for army regalia allegedly used by “rogue elements” in society to commit crimes.

Source: Zimbabwe’s army to conduct door-to-door searches for camouflage clothing – Times Live

The post Zimbabwe’s army to conduct door-to-door searches for camouflage clothing appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Zimbabwe imports wheat, which it blends with its local crop to make flour for bread, the country’s second major staple after maize meal.

Source: Zimbabwe to run out of bread in one week as flour stocks dwindle – millers – EyeWitness

Zimbabwe imports wheat, which it blends with its local crop to make flour for bread, the country’s second major staple after maize meal.

HARARE – Zimbabwe could run out of bread in a week after flour stocks dwindled due to the country’s failure to pay for imported wheat, according to a confidential letter written to bakers by the country’s grain millers’ group on Monday.

The southern African nation is in the grip of a severe shortage of US dollars that has sapped supplies of fuel and drugs, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa struggles to live up to pre-election promises to quickly revive the troubled economy.

Zimbabwe imports wheat, which it blends with its local crop to make flour for bread, the country’s second major staple after maize meal.

The Grain Millers Association (GMAZ) general manager Lynette Veremu wrote to the National Bakers Association of Zimbabwe (NBAZ) to tell them not to pay for 55,000 tonnes of wheat in bonded warehouses in Mozambique and Harare.

“We regret to advise that the current stocks for foreign wheat for bread flour have depleted to 5,800 tonnes and … we are left with less than eight days of national bread flour supplies,” the letter said.

GMAZ spokesman Garikai Chaunza confirmed the letter, saying “this is the situation we are faced with”.

Ngoni Mazango, the president of the bakers’ group, was not immediately available to comment.

The central bank lists wheat among priority imports like fuel and drugs, but has struggled to pay suppliers in the past. GMAZ said in December it owed foreign suppliers $80 million for past wheat imports.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya did not answer calls to his mobile phone.

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Robert Mugabe is turning 95 and his birthday has been declared a holiday in Zimbabwe. The holiday was mooted by the ruling ZANU-PF youth league to honor their then icon, whose birthday had since the 1980s been celebrated as the 21st February Movement. While it’s unlikely that many Zimbabweans yearn for former ruler Robert Mugabe’s […]