Vendors

There is a high rate of unemployment in Zimbabwe and most people struggle to make ends meet hence they seek for other alternatives of making money to sustain themselves. This has led to a significant rise in the informal sector whereby people start their own mini businesses in order to generate income. One most notable place that has become the hub for the informal traders is “Egodini”. This is a place where commuter omnibuses pick up passengers taking them to their places of destination. This used to be a Zimbabwe United Passenger Company bus terminus when buses where still the only mode of transport available.

I am not against informal traders because l believe they also are trying to make money like those people employed in formal sectors. But what is disheartening about Egodini is the dirt. l am pretty sure that this is the dirtiest place in Bulawayo. It is so dirty that I sometimes wonder if people buy perishables like fruits and vegetables from these people. Most of them don’t have stalls where they can display their products so they lay them cover the ground with a thin paper and lay their products there.

Egodini insert picture

A couple of weeks back, l talked to some of the vendors asking them how they felt about the dirt and why they continued selling in such a dirty place. I was told that these informal traders pay a fixed amount of money to the city council for rentals. There were allegations that the city council did not fulfil its part of the bargain of cleaning the place, the traders said that it was not their responsibility to clean the place, instead it was the City council’s obligation.

I have always noticed that at some point, the city council police officials chase these people and confiscate their products. I have often wondered why it is that way and how they recover their products. As l inquired further about this, l was told that City council officials confiscate products of traders who have not paid rent. If and when products are confiscated, traders are supposed to go and pay a fine to the City Council but they do not get their goods back. A certain man spoke with a heavy heart as he related to me how he had purchased a truck load of goods and as soon as it was offloaded the City council officials came and took all of it and he was made to pay a fine but never got his goods back.

The dirt found at Egodini

This I think is the meanest thing ever, how do they expect these people to make money if they take their goods away from them and share them amongst themselves. Once a fine is paid they should return the goods to their rightful owners. How can these traders succeed when the city council people are busy pulling them down?

Is it corruption or is it pure greed? I wonder? How then are these people expected to raise more money to go and buy other goods to sell? Let’s take for instance if this person has taken all his savings and bought all these goods and hoped to get double or triple profits. What becomes of that person after losing his or her goods?

No wonder sometimes it is like a cat and mouse game. When city council arrives informal traders run for their lives with their goods. Some of the materials they lay their goods on have been designed in such a way that when city council comes they just pull a string and everything closes in. For those who cannot make those designs due to the nature of the goods they sell, it’s sad that they run away and leave some of these goods. Long back they used to throw the goods into a bin and retrieve them after the council officials are gone(I am glad that they no longer do that because that was a health hazard) .

We need Bulawayo City Council to keep Egodini clean and stop confiscating the goods of these people, rather evict them if they don’t pay rentals.