CUTHBERT MASHOKO
Mwenezi Rural District Council has upped the game by relatively bringing sanity at the sprawling Rutenga Growth Point, which was slowly turning into a dog-eat-dog business centre.
Vendors operating on verandahs and at almost every available open space had blocked exit paths at the Growth Point making it difficult or impossible for customers to move from one building to the other.
Council authorities have flexed their muscle on the vendors, driving them away from the CBD and allocating them vending stalls around the rank area with some located adjacent to the Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED) open space.
This development has brought a sigh of relief to the formal business players in the CBD whose buildings were being obstructed by the vendors’ make shift vending stalls.
Notable areas where the vendors were a menace include the NJ and Chingwanga Supermarkets where the supermarkets entrances and verandahs were hardly passable as vendors parked their vending carts just in front of the supermarkets.
Regularizing the operations of informal traders by the local authority has been a step in the right direction as the informal sector has proved to be a key source of revenue and a contributor to the Gross National Product for one of the poorest, yet rich districts in the country.
This has been a shot in the arm for women who are the major players in the vending industry since they no longer have to play hide and seek games with the police and council authorities while plying their trade.
Vending in Rutenga is a major source of income for many families. Creating a conducive environment for players in the business to operate lawfully is highly commendable, given the prevailing harsh economic climate which has seen many families living from hand to mouth.
Apart from bringing order in the CBD, the move to allocate designated vending areas to vendors has contributed to general cleanliness at the Growth Point. This is a key development which helps to contain the spread of medieval diseases like cholera which has hit the whole country.
It is against this background that Council need to expedite the process of constructing public ablution facilities especially in areas which are always teeming with people like the vending places.
Water and sanitation are key elements in the modernisation drive, hence the need to give them due attention.
