Harare Street Vendors To Be Moved To Shawasha Grounds

The Government has resolved to move traders to Shawasha grounds to bring order to the streets of Harare.

Addressing journalists in the capital on Tuesday, Harare Metropolitan Provincial Affairs minister Oliver Chidawu said a contractor has failed to build suitable structures for vendors and the Government will build temporary structures for traders to use until an investor is found. Said Chidawu:

To this end, we are liaising with the City of Harare to identify new areas where traders can be relocated and have a mutually beneficial working arrangement with the local authority.

We have decided that everyone goes into Shawasha grounds. We are going to build temporary structures there until we get an investor.

We have already cancelled (the contract of) the previous investor who has failed to perform. So it has just been closed all these years.

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No one is allowed to go on the streets to sell wares as the streets are designed for cars. People must be where it is designated for them (vendors).

We have not been providing adequate space for them, but now an alternative space has been given which is Shawasha grounds.

Harare Provincial Affairs and Devolution secretary Tafadzwa Muguti ordered traders operating from undesignated sites to remove their wares and approach their local authorities to be allocated proper trading space. Said Muguti:

We are, therefore, asking for everyone who has been operating illegally at places you know you don’t have papers from the local authority, to remove your wares and materials and approach the local authority so that you can be given somewhere to work from.

Development control is now at full throttle in Harare metropolitan province, including our central business district and we ensure that we build smart cities.

There is a Development Control Act which is under the Urban Council Act, local authorities are mandated to ensure law and order, and if you build your shacks on the land which has not been designated, council will not be liable for your loss because you have gone onto land which you have no ownership lease or title to.

This comes after the City of Harare, with support from the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), at the weekend destroyed illegal vending stalls and tuckshops in Mbare, one of Harare’s oldest suburbs.

More: NewsDay