Pain, agony as fire razes livelihoods

KUDAKWASHE CHIBVURI

Thousands of traders at the populous Mbare Musika in Harare were left counting their losses after goods worth millions of dollars and cash were razed down by an inferno Tuesday evening.

Mbare is home to a billion dollar small businesses venture that include a vegetable market, thousands of small retail outlets and other enterprises making it one of the biggest in Africa.

All that was brought down by a raging fire that went on for hours.

Though it was not clear what could have caused the fire, some of the victims suspected foul play as they felt political actors could have deliberately started the fire to find a fresh page in dealing with the long lasting chaos that has been at the council-owned market.

Others felt it was a result of voodoo used by others to boost their market while some thought it was started by a candle which was being used to light up an isolated place as there was no electricity.

Council was left exposed for its failure to provide safer facilities for vendors who were overcrowded in their workplaces.

The local authority was also left exposed for failure to deal with such disasters as it took them hours to deal with the fire that destroyed several items including cash.

Witnesses blasted council for lack of capacity.

“When we saw the fire engines, there was a sigh of relief. We felt let down when they did nothing,” one of the witnesses said.

A businesswoman trading at the market lost peanuts valued at US$18k and was left devastated.

“I had recently acquired four tonnes of peanuts. I don’t know how to proceed from here,” she lamented.

Some lost money meant for stokvel which was kept at the facilities according to one of the vendors.

 “It’s very unfortunate that the money was destroyed,” she said.

Security guards who are usually patrolling the area were accused of engaging in looting instead of putting out the fire.

Police had to deploy anti-riot officers at the scene to contain the crowd.

The restless crowd however, were agitated by the presence of the police officers and said this could confirm how the matter was “political.”

“This issue is political. You can’t tell me that the fire just came from nowhere; it’s unbelievable. You’ll be shocked to see people operating here next week in built and proper places,” another vendor said.

Observers say the latest was an opportunity for the council to put its house in order and construct a proper facility.