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Adelaide Moyo Chronicle Reporter
THE Victoria Falls Municipality is engaging the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to come up with a strategy to prevent illegal curio vendors from selling their wares in “dangerous areas.” The high prevalence of illegal curio vendors has irked the local authority which is considering working in partnership with ZimParks and increasing municipal police patrols to manage the situation.

Town Clerk Christopher Dube yesterday said illegal vendors are a nuisance to tourists.

He said the development was spurred by the death of an illegal curio vendor, who was trampled to death by an elephant on Sunday.

As a tourist destination, Victoria Falls has numerous curio traders who sell their wares mostly to foreign visitors.

A number of illegal curio dealers who operate from the Big Tree — a giant baobab tree that is one of the tourist attractions in the resort town — and at other spots popular with visitors are in danger because of animals, the local authority said.

The council wants curio dealers to operate from designated areas which are safer and licensed but a number of them have resisted saying there is no business at such places and prefer to approach tourists directly.

Dube said the municipality will move illegal vendors from the dangerous areas.

“We want to work together with ZimParks so that illegal curio dealers are controlled. We’re very tough on curio sellers and we’ll continue for the sake of their safety,” said Dube.

“One of the reasons why an elephant trampled that guy on Sunday is because those curio dealers run away when they see the police or people from parks.

“We want to protect them but when they run away it’ll be beyond our control. We don’t want a situation where our visitors are harassed because illegal curio dealers can get abusive when they want their wares to be bought. One of our motives is to clear illegal activity in the resort town.”

Street vendors said they knew their business was illegal.

They said they could not afford rentals which they said were very high since business was very low.

“If I sell my pieces from a shop that means I would go for a week without money and my family would starve.

“The police are always chasing us but we try our best to avoid them and that’s the order of the day because we want money,” said Oscar Mathe.