Bulawayo mayor Solomon Mguni on Monday accused the ruling ZANU PF of promoting illegal vending in the city, which was leading to rampant littering.
Mguni spoke as the city launched a campaign dubbed ‘Spring Cleaning Week’ which will see the local authority clear rubbish which has piled up at seven locations in the city centre.
He said ZANU PF encouraged the vendors who had been chased out of the CBD to return and occupy 5th Avenue where they are untouchable, even by the police. He is cited by ZimLive.com as saying:
People who were settled here (5th Avenue) were settled by politicians from the ruling party and we have tried to engage the party and the security apparatus of the state to try and remove them.
This is a public road, it was closed to vending and we decentralised markets but people think money is the city centre. 5th Avenue remains a public road, it was gazetted as a public road and it remains as such. We have to enforce the law, but it requires collective effort of all government agencies including the Environmental Management Agency, health authorities, the security apparatus of the state and our own security officers to ensure that we reopen the road to the public. It’s a question of enforcement which has gone beyond the local authority alone.
During the peak of COVID-19, the central government ordered Bulawayo to clear vendors from the CBD to high-density suburbs and 5th Avenue was reopened to the motoring public.
Mguni however says many of the vendors have returned and are getting protection from Zanu PF.