Global IssuesTRADE-ZIMBABWE: 'Another Operation Murambatsvina to Be Unleashed'
It’s a Thursday morning and the Mbare Musika Market is a hive of activity. Trucks, weighed down with assorted fruits, vegetables and potatoes, negotiate their way through the congested market. You can get anything here -- from vegetables, mealie-meal and cooking oil to television sets and clothing.
This market, home to about 1,000 traders, is one the many dotted around the old township of Mbare that the Harare City Council is planning to destroy. The council argues that the markets were not properly set up as per council by-laws.
The council claims if the markets are left to operate they will cultivate criminality, create a health hazard and affect the council’s cash inflows as many of the traders do not pay tax. 'We should not promote anarchy. Let us remove all the illegal structures as soon as possible and bring back order,' Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Chiroto announced at a recent council meeting.
If implemented, the move is likely to affect many traders whose businesses and homes were violently destroyed during the infamous 2005 Operation Murambatsvina ('Restore Order), launched by President Robert Mugabe’s government to, ostensibly, decongest urban areas.
It was, however, widely regarded as punishment for urban dwellers who had overwhelmingly voted for the then-opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the March 2005 general elections. According to the United Nations, the campaign left over 700,000 people homeless and led to the demise of the enterprises of traders around the country.
But this time round informal traders are sticking to their guns. 'This will do nothing except to kill us,' Ruth Kasinauyo, a trader at Mupadzanhamo market, who looks after a family of five, told IPS. 'I have nowhere to get an income. This is the only job I know.
'My husband went to the United Kingdom and never returned and I am the father and mother of the house. The city council must bring a bulldozer to move me from here.'
The Mupedzanhamo market is a shanty market where second-hand clothes sourced from neighbouring countries are sold. Mupedzanhamo means 'problem-solver' in the vernacular Shona language.
'I have since stopped looking for a job because this is now my life. I manage to pay school fees for my kids, buy food and pay rent,' trader Tarisai Kasinauyo told IPS.
Just a stone’s throw from Mupedzanhamo market is Siyaso market, a colloquial Shona word for 'leave it like that'. This informal traders’ market was razed to the ground in 2005 during Operation Murambatsvina.
Meanwhile a thriving home industry has sprung up where furniture, building materials and vehicle repair workshops are housed. It is a sprawling open market of about 1,500 traders. The place can at best be described as a jungle of commodities sold in a dusty and dirty environment.
Most of the traders operating from this market are at home with this fact but argue that the city council should construct alternative markets before destroying the existing ones. 'No one wants to operate in this dirty area, but what can we do if we have been forgotten?' commented one of the traders who asked for anonymity because of fear of retaliation.
Another trader, who for similar reasons was only willing to identify himself as Timothy, told IPS that he believes that the decision to destroy the markets is politically motivated. 'They should forget about politics and let people concentrate on issues of survival. We are suffering.
'If they dare do it this time, we will fight back,' he threatened.
Thandeka Mlilo is a food vendor. She supplies food to more than 100 traders a day. She feels the council’s move would be unfair to her survival. 'We have licenses issued by them (the council) and they collect rents every month, so what is their problem? If they want to destroy the market, they must give us jobs first,' Mlilo told IPS.
Council collects varying amounts of between 30 to 450 dollars per month in rentals. A Harare-based urban planner, Jerry Gotora, told the weekly Financial Gazette newspaper last month that council should stick to laid-down standards.
'This is how we end up destroying this country and then we blame politicians. It’s feasible for these so-called informal traders to build proper structures as prescribed and they must pay taxes because they are trading,' Gotora insisted.
The council told IPS that the programme to destroy the markets will continue. 'We are going to look at it on a case by case basis but we are removing everything that is not regularised as per council laws. We can’t have people doing what they want or buildings sprouting everywhere,' Lesley Gwindi, the council’s public relations manager, told IPS.
Hopewell Gumbo, an economic and social justice activist, said the council decision will affect women the most. 'Women are the worst affected by the economic problems this country is facing. This second Murambatsvina will be another blow which will obliterate lives,' Gumbo told IPS.
'The solution does not lie in destruction but in providing adequate services to all in need.'
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) statistics say 96 percent of Zimbabweans are unemployed. Most of these people depend solely on the informal sector for their livelihood. Many of them earn a living as flea market and tuck shop operators, furniture makers, and vegetable, curio and flower vendors.
Particularly in developing countries, small informal enterprises absorb many of the unemployed who can otherwise not find work.
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service