Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart has said that there is a need for a dialogue with informal traders operating in the Central Business District (CBD) as a starting point to restore the rule of law in the city.
Coltart said that the city council needs to understand the needs of the vendors and work with them to find a solution that is mutually beneficial.
“One has to use the carrot and stick approach, the carrot side of it is we need to speak to the vendors, we need to see whether there are other areas that they can be moved to, we need to understand who their customers are, we need to understand if they are moved to other areas, they will retain the same number of customers. There needs to be that dialogue with them so that we understand their needs,” said Cllr Coltart during an interview on This Morning on Asakhe.
Coltart said informal traders are often the poorest unemployed people and they rely on vending for their income to put a meal on the table.
“So, we have to deal with them in a compassionate way to understand their problems. But once we have understood them and understood the alternatives available it is tragically important that we move towards more sanity particularly in 5th Avenue, it is totally overcrowded. I can’t believe that it is in the best interest of vendors because they all manage to sell in such a congested space is beyond me,” he said.
Cllr Coltart said there is a need to restore the rule of law in the city.
“I am also told there are certain barons in there who extract rentals for the physical area, that’s unacceptable, that is illegal and ultimately, we have to restore the rule of law in Bulawayo, we have to have orderly vending cites which are allocated to particular people and if they pay any rental, they have to pay to the city not to these land barons,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the city will look into other alternative spaces that can be utilized by vendors.
“But also, we have to have a vision, we need to see what open area there is close to where the purchases are residents. We can’t just move in and in a heavy-handed way and just clear people out, we have to provide them with viable options but once we provide with viable options, we have to restore the rule of law using the stick to ensure that our by-laws are respected,” he said.
He said that the current situation is a health hazard and is not in the best interest of the vendors or the city as a whole.
Coltart also said that the city council will work with businesses and residents to tidy up the city and reduce the amount of litter.
He said that this will require a long-term plan and will involve working with retailers and manufacturers to reduce the use of plastic bottles and bags.
The mayor’s comments come as the city council is struggling to contain illegal vending in the CBD. The problem has led to rampant littering and has created a health hazard. The city council has been embarking on several clean-up campaigns, but these have had little success.
