Anarchy in Harare

SITHENI NLEYA

Harare has been turned into a jungle and only the ‘fit’ are surviving albeit at the expense of law abiding businesses.

Ironically, the surviving fit are illegal traders who have pushed formerly established retailers out of business and depriving the country millions of dollars in potential revenue.

A survey by the Business Times in the city of Harare shows that thousands of illegal traders have taken over the night businesses now belonging to politically-connected individuals who do not subscribe to the city and country statutes.

So daring have the individuals become that they operate on doorsteps of major retail grocery or clothing shops forcing some former giants into possible oblivion.

Not even the intervention of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the local authority has managed to solve the challenge, a situation that raises more questions than answers.

Business Times observed that illegal traders are selling basic commodities at discounted prices on the doorsteps of almost all retail outlets in the city centre that include OK Zimbabwe, Spar, Pick’n’Pay among others.

The same is also prevalent in suburbs across the city.

Retail giants are now panicking but their voices have been muzzled by threats from authorities.

Illegal operations are rife along Park Street between Jason Moyo and Nelson Mandela where illegal traders line up their clothes targeting consumers along the busy space.

This, they say, was a way of evading police who harass them in the day. The traders also sell groceries including toiletries in the streets.

Others are also selling medicinal drugs they would have acquired from pharmacies and clinics at discounted prices.

Despite the Cholera outbreak, vendors are also selling meat in the streets of Harare where they are also offering barbeque.

Cholera has hit the country with Harare and Manicaland the most affected.

The survey by Business Times also revealed illegality surrounding how the goods were finding their way into Zimbabwe to the black market.

It emerged most of the goods were being smuggled with criminals taking advantage of porous borders.

“Clothing bales are smuggled mainly through Mozambique,” one of the sellers said. “In most instances, even authorities are also involved in the smuggling and it is actually a cartel that also includes police, the military, revenue collectors among others,” she added.

Harare City Council, it emerged, is also complicit as it is facilitating registration of some of the “wholesalers” who sell items in huge quantities to the retailers who then flood the market.

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers president Denford Mutashu  said Zimbabweans are now mostly self-employed and are trying to make a living in any manner possible hence the existence of the black market that is however, now thriving at the expense of the formal market.

“Big supermarkets are required by the government to price their merchandise using the official exchange rate, making their prices exorbitant in US dollars. Added to that, larger supermarkets also pay taxes, rates, and other regulatory fees. This now makes manufacturers and suppliers now sell their goods directly to the informal traders who pay in USD upfront. To avoid this, all businesses must be formalised,” Mutashu said.

Council said it was trying to retain law and order in the streets by registering all vendors as small to medium enterprises and facilitate provision of designated sites for them to work from.

This, however, has been the council stance for decades now with no tangible solutions.

A number of operations have been undertaken but the situation remains the same.

Police national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said it was the responsibility of council to deal with vendors and the police only came in to assist.