{"id":8548,"date":"2026-10-28T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/?p=8548"},"modified":"2026-10-17T00:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:31:08","slug":"harares-vendors-caught-between-city-order-and-economic-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/2026\/10\/28\/harares-vendors-caught-between-city-order-and-economic-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Harare’s Vendors Caught Between City Order and Economic Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walk through central Harare on any given day and the pavements are full of people selling things: fruit, vegetables, secondhand clothes, phone accessories, cooked food and more, laid out on tables, sheets and makeshift stalls, often right outside proper shops. These informal traders, or vendors, number in the tens of thousands across Zimbabwe’s capital. Many do not have official permission to trade where they do, and the government now wants them to move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early September 2026, Zimbabwe’s government ordered unauthorised traders to leave their current spots for official, designated vending areas. Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe gave them until Wednesday, 9 September, to move voluntarily. After that date, he said, authorities would begin a “comprehensive, zero-tolerance clean-up operation” to physically clear the streets, tearing down stalls and structures that had not been approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garwe said illegal vending had caused poor sanitation, blocked pathways, disrupted formal businesses and worsened congestion in the capital, and raised concerns about public health and security, including an environment he said was conducive to drug and substance abuse. “The current state of disorderliness on the streets is not tolerable,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operation is set to begin in Harare before spreading to other cities and towns. Illegal structures and stalls will be dismantled, and municipal police will stay in cleared areas to stop vendors from returning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How big is Harare’s informal trade?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

National data from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) shows about 1.36 million people are in informal non-agricultural employment, 41.3 percent of total employment in the country. Separate research has estimated more than 30,000 street traders work in Harare’s central business district alone. ZIMSTAT’s Economic Census also found 204,798 operational business establishments nationally, of which 76.1 percent were informal and 87.9 percent were micro-enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Harare has tried to register these traders before: an earlier drive recorded more than 100,000 street vendors, each paying a US$10 registration fee. Vendors say the registration was never followed by usable trading spaces, and Mayor Jacob Mafume has said the city would look into how that money was collected and spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the directive requires<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The directive targets traders operating outside officially designated vending sites, not informal trading itself. “Whilst the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe acknowledges the existence of informal trading as a recognised avenue of livelihood, this, however, should be within the bounds of municipal by-laws and at legally designated marketplaces,” Garwe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traders were told to move voluntarily or risk losing their merchandise. Local authorities were instructed to speed up registration and allocate compliant traders to designated vending structures. Speaking on ZiFM, Garwe added: “We want clean cities without litter everywhere. Now we have litter and dirt everywhere, including hotels, and we have vendors selling in front of formal retailers such as Pick n Pay. These formal retailers pay taxes and rentals unlike vendors, which is unfair.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That comment has drawn attention for tying the clean-up to competition between vendors and large retailers, not only sanitation. Formal retailers have raised this before: in 2023, OK Zimbabwe said informal traders were mostly engaged in arbitrage and had caused problems for chains including OK Zimbabwe, TM Pick n Pay and Gain Cash & Carry. Finance and Investment Promotion Permanent Secretary George Guvamatanga countered at the time that large supermarkets operating with little real competition was itself unusual, and that retailers unable to compete with small tuckshops should “fire their managers” rather than blame informal traders. VISET and other trader groups have asked why enforcement is now concentrated in exactly the commercially attractive spots where vendors compete with those larger retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where are traders supposed to go?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the question at the centre of most responses to the directive. The government says vendors should move to designated markets provided by local authorities, but it is less clear whether there are enough such spaces, or whether they let people earn a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A vending site’s legal status is one thing; to work commercially it also needs footfall, affordable fees, water, toilets, security, storage and easy access. A market some distance from the city centre may satisfy the by-laws while offering far fewer customers than a street pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harare City Council has acknowledged the gap before. In 2025 it agreed to ring-fence 25 percent of revenue collected from markets specifically for market and vending infrastructure, a step welcomed by informal trader groups. Trader associations say that investment has not yet caught up with the pace of enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regulation and formalisation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) says enforcement should sit within Zimbabwe’s National Informal Economy Formalisation Strategy, adopted by Cabinet in April 2026. VISET executive director Samuel Wadzai argues formalisation should not simply mean removing people from where they currently earn a living: “It must create pathways for informal traders to transition into safer, more secure and sustainable forms of economic activity.” He wants traders involved in decisions about relocation, adequate alternative spaces set up before anyone is displaced, and protection against harassment or confiscation of goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) has raised similar points. When government banned night vending and secondhand clothing trading in August 2025, ZCIEA secretary-general Wisborn Malaya said many traders worked at night precisely because daytime trading had become so restricted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What relocation means for traders<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For many vendors, the directive is about survival rather than rule-breaking. Cephas Muchegwa, who has traded on Harare’s streets for about ten years, said the ultimatum ignored the reality facing ordinary people: “The minister is insensitive. Our survival is in the streets. We will not go anywhere. There are no jobs in the industry. We have graduates at home. So what can we do to survive?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harare Residents Trust director Precious Shumba described vending as “a symptom of a dysfunctional economy,” pointing to 2023 World Bank findings that high inflation, exchange rate distortions and a difficult business environment had raised the cost of doing business formally in Zimbabwe. The return of thousands of Zimbabweans from South Africa following xenophobic attacks there has added to the numbers affected, with some returnees said to have joined the ranks of street vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has called for the 9 September deadline to be suspended, arguing that removing vendors without addressing the economic conditions driving them onto the streets treats a symptom rather than a cause: “Vending is not a choice; it is the last item on a long list of things that did not work out. Strip away the label ‘illegal vendor’ and what remains is a citizen chasing a livelihood in a country with too little to offer.” The group wants dialogue with vendor associations and civil society, accessible and affordable markets in place before any removals, and assurance that enforcement will not involve violence or destruction of goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women’s rights groups, including those linked to Women and Law in Southern Africa, have flagged a gendered dimension: because many women vendors rely on street trading to pay for food and school fees, losing that income without a workable alternative could affect them disproportionately. They have called for clarity on whether designated markets offer enough space, and whether it is affordable and safe for women traders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recurring pattern<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Zimbabwe has issued similar orders before: a seven-day ultimatum in 2015 alongside plans for roughly 6,000 designated vending spaces, a 48-hour ultimatum for food vendors in 2017, demolitions during the COVID-19 pandemic, a seven-day clearance order during the 2023 cholera outbreak, and another CBD clearance and night-vending ban in August 2025 that gave traders a month to clear stock, after which vendors were reportedly still trading at night by 19 August. Enforcement has faded each time, and civil society groups say they are watching for what, beyond the promise of municipal police remaining in cleared areas, would make this round different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government’s position<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Government officials and formal retailers argue the status quo carries real costs: blocked pavements affect pedestrians and people with disabilities, unregulated waste creates health risks, and retailers paying rent, licenses and taxes are competing with traders who are not. Garwe has framed the clean-up as necessary for clean, orderly cities and designated trading areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A challenge shared across African cities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Harare’s situation reflects a wider pattern across African cities, where formal urban planning is being tested by informal economies that have grown to fill gaps in formal job markets. The scale of Zimbabwe’s informal sector, reflected in ZIMSTAT’s figures above, means the outcome of this clean-up will affect a significant share of how people in Harare earn income and access goods, whatever direction it takes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Walk through central Harare on any given day and the pavements are full of people selling things: fruit, vegetables, secondhand clothes, phone accessories, cooked food and more, laid out on tables, sheets and makeshift stalls, often right outside proper shops. These informal traders, or vendors, number in the tens of thousands across Zimbabwe’s capital. Many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":8661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,30,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-governance","category-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8548"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8686,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions\/8686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openafricantribune.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}