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Leonard Ncube  Victoria Falls Reporter
VICTORIA Falls Municipality has launched a crackdown on Zambian vendors who sell their wares on the streets of the resort town.
The operation had netted 13 vendors by last Friday.Last week local vendors complained to the council about lack of business as a result of an influx of illegal Zambian vendors who flood the market with fruits, vegetables, mealie-meal and other goods.

Town Clerk Christopher Dube said the blitz, which was meant to restore sanity, started on Friday.

“We’ve by-laws guiding vendors’ operations and these are being violated. We’ve become tough on Zambians and we’re now arresting them for illegal vending,” said Dube.

Zambians carrying goods on their heads, backs or bicycles have become a common sight on Victoria Falls streets, especially in the morning. Dube said a central selling point was opened for the Zambians at the old market in Chinotimba Township where they are allowed to bring their goods and sell in bulk to locals.

He said that understanding was being violated as the Zambians were moving from door to door selling their goods.

“They’ve one selling point at the old market and we started arresting them last week as we want to restore sanity in our town,” Dube said.

He said Zambians caught selling their wares in undesignated places were fined different amounts ranging between $10 and $20.

Chamber Secretary Phillip Ndlovu said foreigners were not allowed to sell goods in the country.

He said the Zambians were only allowed in the country on the basis of the two countries’ bilateral relations. “They’re not allowed to come and sell in Zimbabwe. It’s only that we need to maintain bilateral relationships with their country and we can’t send them away,” said Ndlovu.

“The issue was once raised at Joint Operations Committee (JOC) level and we agreed that we should at least establish a central point for them at the old market where they can sell in large quantities.

‘‘The agreement was that we don’t want goods such as mealie-meal while charcoal can be allowed in because it’s scarce here. We can possibly stop them at the border but we don’t want to jeopardise our country to country relationship. However, they’ve been taking advantage of this which is why we’ve resorted to rounding them up. On Friday we arrested 13 and we haven’t compiled figures for the other days but the exercise is ongoing,” said Ndlovu.

Zimbabwe and Zambia last year jointly launched the pilot Uni-Visa which is aimed at enhancing movement and trade between the two countries.

Ndlovu said the Zambian traders were even avoiding paying tax at the border as they purport to be visiting relatives. “They’re violating a lot of by-laws. After all they don’t pay anything at the border as they say they’re bringing the goods to their relatives. They overload their bicycles, which by law, should carry a load of less than 40kg. They carry more than 100kgs posing a traffic hazard,” Ndlovu said.

The Zambian vendors are given a temporary gate pass to cross into Zimbabwe. Chinotimba Tavern Market chair Ennie Moyo said they were mooting approaching authorities to be allowed to cross the border and sell their goods in Zambia. “We’re out of business yet we pay $15 to council. The Zambians don’t pay anything but they’re allowed to sell their wares everywhere. We will soon ask for those passes to be allowed to do the same in Zambia,” she said.