18 December 2011
HARARE City Council and the police will on Wednesday launch a massive clean-up operation targeting kombis and illegal vendors in the Central Business District.
Previous joint operations were not sustained.
Unregistered and unroadworthy kombis will be taken off the road while all commuter omnibuses using undesignated drop-off and pick-up points will be impounded.
Residents have complained over congestion on the city’s streets, attributed to errant kombi crews. City spokesman Mr Leslie Gwindi told the Press last Friday that the operation starts on Wednesday.
Harare district police spokesman Inspector James Sabau, national traffic spokesman Inspector Tigere Chigome and a member of the Zimbabwe Traffic Safety Board attended the Press briefing.
Mr Gwindi said the blitz will be carried out with the assistance of the police, the Vehicle Inspection Department, Central Vehicle Registry and Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe.
Harare City councillors have on several occasions called for the enforcement of city by-laws and there are several resolutions to that effect. This means the action by council and police has the blessings of the full council.
“The exercise will address the following areas – illegal vending, illegal flea markets, business licensing, illegal structures and commuter omnibus ranks and the general traffic flow in the city,” said Mr Gwindi.
The city’s capacity to control traffic was recently put to the test during heavy downpours that saw motorists taking up to two hours to manoeuvre out of the city centre.
“This exercise, while it will be carried out simultaneously, will concentrate initially on commuter omnibus ranks and traffic flow. This exercise is ongoing and will continue until the city is cleared of this scourge,” he said.
Mr Gwindi said vending was outlawed in the CBD, adding that the operation will not countenance any attempts to legalise this.
Asked why Harare was not acting progressively like other world cities that have designated vending sites in the CBD, Mr Gwindi said Harare cannot be a city of vendors.
He said people intending to buy fruits and vegetables should do so at grocery shops that have sections for fruits and vegetables.
While the city wants to flush out vendors from the CBD where the market for their goods is, the same city authorities are demanding that all residents should pay up their bills.
Asked why the city was only dealing with symptoms or the end result of an economic problem that has ushered in a city vending economy, Mr Gwindi said: “We run a city economy. We cannot have a city of vendors. We created farmers’ markets. People should sell and buy from there,” he said.
The influx of vendors in the CBD is in part a response to a poor economy that is failing to create jobs and an endeavour by residents to be self-employed.
Insp Sabau said police were not heavy handed in their treatment of kombi drivers as the drivers were putting the lives of many people at risk.
He defended the smashing of commuter omnibus windscreens saying if the police did not do that they would be run over.
“Lives of police officers are at a higher risk from commuter drivers than from armed robbers,” he said.
Insp Chigome urged kombi drivers to use designated pick-up and drop-off points such as Rezende Street north and south, Copacabana, Fourth Street, Market Square, and Charge Office. He said three quarters of kombis in Harare were not properly registered.
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Zimbabwe: Fresh Police, Council Blitz On Kombis