Stakeholders in Bulawayo have finally yielded to pressure and allowed informal traders operating at the 5th Avenue market in the city centre to operate legally.
For years, the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) struggled to remove informal traders who had taken over some city centre streets.
The decision, met with cheers by hundreds of traders packed into the Large City Hall, was delivered at a meeting convened by the Bulawayo Informal Working Group, an association of various traders’ associations.
Dumisani Ncube, chairperson of the National SMEs Advisory Council, announced, “Legally, we are now allowed to trade at 5th Avenue, following extensive consultations with stakeholders.”
He explained that a model would be developed for allocating operating areas to vendors and clarified that 600 bays would be available.
“We want to avoid creating ‘land barons’ who exploit others,” Ncube emphasised. “Every association must register their members currently trading at 5th Avenue. We will share the available space fairly.”
He added, “We also proposed developing another site, Bhaktas, as a model for second-hand clothing vendors. It will accommodate 700 members, bringing the total to 1,300 bays.”
Ncube further stated that vendors would be temporarily removed from the city centre to allow the council to prepare the vending bays. He said, “We’ll ask the operational committee to expedite the process and tell us how long it will take. Once the relocation is complete, the council can work efficiently without disruptions. The Town Clerk assures us it won’t take more than a week, so I’m confident.”
