European Knight
07-13-2015, 04:48 PM
THE police came with truncheons at dawn, catching the vendors as they arrived to set up their stalls in central Harare.
In scenes all too reminiscent of President Robert Mugabe’s infamous campaign of shack clearances in 2005, municipal officers smashed down the traders’ tables.
Some of them reacted by stoning the police, according to state media. Up to 29 traders were arrested and six seriously injured in the chaos.
The traders had been told they were a public health hazard. They’d been ordered to leave the city centre by the end of June. Very few of them – apart from the pro-ruling party Queen of Grace Zim Asset Trust vendors’ association, which
barely existed a month ago and appears to be named after the Zimbabwe president’s wife – complied.
“It’s not defiance,” said Promise Mkwananzi, the head of the Zimbabwe Informal Sectors Organisation (Ziso), as the street battles raged. “There is no alternative. The economy has been decimated. Industry is down. There are no jobs.”
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans have invaded the streets of the country’s main towns and cities in the last few months, selling everything from second-hand tights and socks to peanut butter and pumpkins. Some have lost their jobs in a
worsening economic squeeze that the Mugabe government blames on western sanctions. Others are officially employed but haven’t been paid for months. Many are university graduates.
Harare street vendors hurt in government clampdown - The Scotsman (http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/harare-street-vendors-hurt-in-government-clampdown-1-3828274)
Police in Harare arrest 12 in street vendor clampdown | News24 (http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/Police-in-Harare-arrest-12-in-street-vendor-clampdown-20150709)
http://www.scotsman.com/webimage/1.3828273.1436639072!/image/2278034964.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/2278034964.jpg
In scenes all too reminiscent of President Robert Mugabe’s infamous campaign of shack clearances in 2005, municipal officers smashed down the traders’ tables.
Some of them reacted by stoning the police, according to state media. Up to 29 traders were arrested and six seriously injured in the chaos.
The traders had been told they were a public health hazard. They’d been ordered to leave the city centre by the end of June. Very few of them – apart from the pro-ruling party Queen of Grace Zim Asset Trust vendors’ association, which
barely existed a month ago and appears to be named after the Zimbabwe president’s wife – complied.
“It’s not defiance,” said Promise Mkwananzi, the head of the Zimbabwe Informal Sectors Organisation (Ziso), as the street battles raged. “There is no alternative. The economy has been decimated. Industry is down. There are no jobs.”
Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans have invaded the streets of the country’s main towns and cities in the last few months, selling everything from second-hand tights and socks to peanut butter and pumpkins. Some have lost their jobs in a
worsening economic squeeze that the Mugabe government blames on western sanctions. Others are officially employed but haven’t been paid for months. Many are university graduates.
Harare street vendors hurt in government clampdown - The Scotsman (http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/harare-street-vendors-hurt-in-government-clampdown-1-3828274)
Police in Harare arrest 12 in street vendor clampdown | News24 (http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/Police-in-Harare-arrest-12-in-street-vendor-clampdown-20150709)
http://www.scotsman.com/webimage/1.3828273.1436639072!/image/2278034964.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/2278034964.jpg