The Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) will embark on a joint operation with the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Harare Municipal Police to evict vendors and illegal foreign currency dealers from the Harare CBD.
Vendors were stunned when they were notified that Operation Restore Legacy had been extended to them after they had wrongly assumed that the fall of former President Robert Mugabe would allow them to operate in peace. City of Harare spokesperson Mike Chideme said:
This is not a stop-gap measure. Vendors, mushika shika must just go where they belong. This is Operation Restore Legacy. We want to restore the sunshine legacy of Harare.
We have been conscientising vendors from yesterday (Saturday) and today Sunday giving awareness so that tomorrow (today) we don’t chase anyone. People must just go to their designated sites.
Pro-democracy activist and Tajamuka/Sesjikile Campaign founder Promise Mkwananzi, however, said that the government needed to provide employment for the vendors first. Said Mkwananzi:
We are going to stand with the vendors for death or for life, until and unless the economic challenges are resolved and employment is created. We are not stealing from everybody.
More: Daily News