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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Chronicle Reporter
GWANDA Municipality is regularising operations of vendors within the town centre to ensure that they operate from areas where there is brisk business while not infringing on formal business operations.

Vendors in the town had written to the municipality seeking to operate from the city centre as that was where they could record good business and to be allocated more working space.

Vendors were allocated some points to operate from but they have complained that these areas are secluded and have low business.

The points also cannot cater for all vendors, forcing some of them to operate from illegal selling points.

As a result the cat and mouse game between council police and vendors has heightened in the town as vendors insist on operating from illegal points, which bring in more money.

Vendors were removed from the city centre in March 2020 to carry out a disinfection exercise and bring sanity in the town.

In an interview, Gwanda Mayor Councillor Njabulo Siziba said the town’s management had deliberated over the matter and concluded that there was a need for the by-laws to be relaxed.

He said the matter will be discussed at length during a full council meeting.

Clr Siziba said council will work on strategies to relax by-laws that regulate operations of vendors in the town so that they can be allowed to operate in areas where they can record brisk business while not infringing on the operations of other businesses.

“According to our by-laws vending within the town is illegal.

However, we are looking at a situation whereby vending is a source of livelihood for many people.

At the same time vending if not properly managed can be a major health threat.

As a council we are trying to have a new outlook whereby we are saying even if we have by-laws we can relax them a bit to ensure that vendors can operate,” he said.

“The vending space we have availed at the moment is not enough for the vending population.

Our by-laws state that vendors have to operate from a developed area but there is a vending space which isn’t yet developed.

This is forcing vendors to operate from illegal areas.

We have to see how best to get them in spaces where they can record viable business while at the same time observing health standards.”

He said the council was losing a lot of revenue because of illegal vending.

Clr Siziba said if the majority of vendors conducted their operations while fleeing from council police then it meant the council would not get much revenue.

He said at the same time vendors had to realise that they could not be allowed to operate outside shops as they would be obstructing operations of other businesses.

“We understand that the vendors have to make money and at the same time they must understand that we want to keep sanity within the town.

We can’t allow them to operate from the doorstep of shops.

We will try by all means to find convenient selling points and they must also cooperate,” he said.

The chairperson of Gwanda Urban Chamber of SMEs representing the informal sector, Mr Michael Masakana Ndlovu said the vendors were concerned as business was low in the designated selling points.

He said they decided to write the letter to municipality imploring the council to look into their grievances.

Mr Ndlovu said in the letter they have also requested to be allocated a portion of land near the Gwanda Municipality Park which could be turned into a vending site.

He said a number of vendors still did not have working space.

“As vendors our plea is to be allocated working space in busy areas.

We want our products to be visible to the people so that we don’t lose business.

If people can’t reach us easily they will opt to buy from shops,” he said.
@DubeMatutu