The Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) has condemned the ongoing demolition of “illegal” structures by the Harare City Council (HCC) across the city, describing the move as brutal and barbaric.
In a statement, VISET director Samuel Wadzai said the council should have engaged the informal traders of its plans rather taking advantage of the stay-at-home order to destroy their source of livelihood. Said Wadzai:
We know that it is the responsibility of local authorities to make sure that streets are clean and people operate from designated places but to go and destroy vending spaces of informal traders without engaging with them first is surely irresponsible.
This is just another act of brutality and barbarism meant to further impoverish the already struggling people in the informal economy. It is totally unacceptable.
HCC and government are currently destroying informal traders’ market stalls across the capital city’s high-density areas, while the owners look on helplessly.
The authorities have justified the demolitions on the pretext that they are trying to curb the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.