Illegal vending menace grips Mt Pleasant

MT PLEASANT residents are once again appealing to the City of Harare to deal with the swelling number of illegal vendors and the mushrooming of tuckshops in the suburb.

Suburban Reporter

This week Mt Pleasant residents told council officials on their residents’ WhatsApp group that illegal vendors had sprouted on Quorn Avenue next to Arundel Village. According to the residents, the illegal vendors along Quorn Avenue are selling second hand clothes.

The discussion heard that there were also second hand clothes vendors along Epping Road with one of the vendors said to be selling outside Number 40 Epping Road.

Residents expressed dismay over the emergence of corner stores on nearly every road in the suburb describing the situation as “out of hand”.

Some residents said Mt Pleasant was rapidly turning into a huge vendors’ market like Mbare Musika and suggested it was perhaps time they also started paying rates similar to Mbare.

Another group of vendors was said to have set base along Wycombe Avenue in Groombridge.

Some mechanics are also said to have established a makeshift garage by Borrowdale Post Office where they are repairing vehicles while more vendors and taxis (mushikashika) are now a permanent feature at the top of Pendennis Road at the corner with Mt Pleasant Drive. This particular spot was described as chaotic by residents.

Residents encouraged Mt Pleasant district officer Mrs Marian Mverechena to take a drive through the area at lunch time and witness the chaos.

Another tuckshop is said to be operating on Whitwell Road opposite a new housing project under construction there.

Mrs Mverechena informed the residents that the City of Harare was planning a mop up operation to clear all areas where vendors are illegally operating from.

“Good morning, please be advised that there is a mop up operation going to clear all areas where vendors are illegally settling,” said Mrs Mverechena.

Residents thanked Mrs Mverechena for updating them on the measures the City of Harare is taking to deal with the menace of illegal vendors.

The residents said their worry was not only the degradation of the ambience of their neighbourhood but also the fact that illegal vendors usually attract criminal elements raising fears of robberies, muggings and housebreakings.  Vendors also leave piles of rubbish in front of residents’ properties, home owners noted.

Residents said the operation had been long in coming and were praying it is carried out as soon as possible because the challenge of illegal vendors was growing by the day with more at the corner of Alpes Road and Harare Drive and Borrowdale Road (Liberation Legacy Way) opposite the Village Walk Mall.

However, some residents pointed out that one operation would not be adequate to deal with the illegal vendors because they will soon reappear after the one blitz. They suggested regular and consistent operations with deterrent fines.

Other residents argued that people were resorting to vending as their only means of fending for their families but counter-arguments were made that the vendors should operate in an orderly manner and not do things haphazardly with the City of Harare providing the vendors with designated spaces from where to conduct business.