BY OWN CORRESPONDENT

THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has slammed the government over the eviction of vendors from the streets at a time it is not creating employment opportunities.

In a statement, responding to Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe’s order banning all vending activities across the country as an effort to contain waste management and illicit activities such as drug dealing, ZCTU said it was a ‘wrong diagnosis’.

Garwe, cited “serious health, safety, and security concerns,” warning that the increase of unregulated markets has disrupted legally registered businesses and created unsanitary conditions that could lead to disease outbreaks such as cholera and typhoid. The mushrooming of unregulated marketplaces has disrupted legally registered businesses,” Garwe said.

He added that the growing informal sector is also “increasing unfair competition” and creating “unsanitary conditions.”

The ZCTU Acting Secretary General, Runesu Dzimiri, described Garwe’s 48-hour ultimatum is a “heavy –handed, insensitive and reactionary” response.

He said the government needs to appreciate that its policies were behind the high informality rate and that citizens were pushed onto the streets due to a broken and jobless economy.

“We reiterate that people who are into street vending are not into it for their liking but are being forced due to the unemployment levels largely blamed on bad economic policies. Instead of harassing vendors, the government must first of all restore economic growth and create the promised millions of jobs and by doing so, all vendors will vanish overnight,” he said.

Dzimiri urged the government and local authorities to understand that the informal economy has become the biggest employer in the country and, therefore it needs to be handled carefully.

He said the ILO recognized the importance of the informal economy, and this year’s 113^th Session of the International Labour Conference will have a discussion on innovative approaches to tackling informality and promoting transitions towards formality for the achievement of decent work standards in the informal economy.

“What is more hypocritical for the government is that it has been encouraging people to go into self-help projects and declaring them as an eyesore now is extremely insensitive. In fact, most of the vendors are mere workers of chefs and street barons who give them wages to sell in the streets. There is also a possibility that the government is acting to appease businesses that have been losing profits to vendors,” Dzimiri said.

The ZCTU added that local authorities and the central government must first provide alternative decent trading places instead of reactionary policies that are cruel and inconsiderate.

The Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economies Association (ZCIEA) called on government to be sensitive to the light of informal workers.

In a statement, the association said; “We strongly feel that the government should engage us as stakeholders in the sector, and we frame a productive way forward to address multi-expanding vending as the concern of the country. There is a great need for an honest and robust engagement to see how we can collectively address the factors that draw informal traders into the CBD. It should be noted that the continued proliferation of informal traders is a direct result of de-industrialisation, which makes this intended action dealing with the symptom just but a temporary measure. As stakeholders, we know and understand for a fact that the Local Authorities have failed to provide readily designated places meant for informal traders with sufficient sanitary facilities to cater for the huge number of our members. There is a need for a permanent solution that satisfies all stakeholders in dealing with this national issue. While the Government and City Council has a mandate to maintain order in our towns and cities, this should not happen at the expense of continuous criminalisation of already vulnerable livelihoods of the majority citizens, who are striving to eke an honest living in this very difficult economy, hence the need for an approach that balance all competing interests.”