HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Stella, 43, works as a vendor in the high-density suburbs of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. She sells fruits and vegetables under a tree, along with another female vendor.
But without a license to operate as a trader, she says it’s becoming increasingly difficult to earn a living. Keeping her eye on her table as she speaks, she says the vendors must be on the alert for constant raids by authorities.
She declines to give her last name for fear of arrest by the Licensing Inspectorate of the Zimbabwe Republic Police or the municipal police under the Harare City Council. She and other vendors here say they don’t understand when police tell them that their activities are illegal.
“What is illegal about selling fruits and vegetables in order to cater for my family’s needs?” she asks.
Pausing from time to time to attend to customers, she says her business helps her family as well as benefits the health of others.
“I have not stolen from anyone, and this is much better than prostitution,” she says.
She says she has no idea what to do to legalize her trade.
Many Zimbabwean vendors say they risk constant raids by police because obtaining a license is too expensive or limits them to operating in unprofitable areas. Police say it’s their job to enforce the law and that they must respond when receiving complaints from other citizens and business owners about the vendors who set up shop on sidewalks. The city residents association has been working with the city government to resolve the situation, as the federal government unrolls a plan to address the underlying issues of unemployment and poverty.
Employment estimates in Zimbabwe vary. While the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency estimated unemployment at 95 percent in 2009, the World Bank put the labor participation rate at 65 percent for the same year.
Informal trade has therefore become widespread as people seek alternative options to earn a living. Local vendors interviewed say they have been raided more than four times since the beginning of 2012.
Informal traders in the city streets sell a variety of wares, such as recharge cards for cell phones, cigarettes, shoe polish, insect killer, socks, toothpicks, headphones, hair combs, sweets, fruits and vegetables. But without licenses, they are subject to frequent raids.
All vendors need a hawker’s license from the Harare City Council in order to legally carry out their trades. Vendors must also always have their licenses with them, as well as their National Identity Document, which bears the same name. If vendors leave family members to sell their wares, the family members could be arrested because the licenses are not in their names.
Some vendors say that the reason they sell goods illegally is that they can’t afford to obtain a hawker’s license when they earn just $2 to $5 a day.
The application to acquire a hawker’s license requires a $20 fee, according to the licensing unit of the Harare City Health Department. If the application is approved, the license itself costs $120 and is valid for one year.
“Even if the license is valid for a year, it is difficult to raise such an amount because profits raised are meant to cater for the immediate needs of the family,” says Timothy, a 25-year-old fruit vendor who declined to give his last name for fear of arrest.
He says that vendors need every cent of their profits to pay for household expenses, such as groceries, transport, rentals, school fees and stationery. He says that some vendors in the capital also need to send money to family who stay in rural areas.
Another unlicensed vendor, who declined to be name for fear of being arrested, also works downtown in Harare’s central business district. She sells candy, cigarettes and cell phone recharge cards.
She says there are many other obstacles that make obtaining a license problematic for vendors. For example, the city council must approve one’s operating space. She says this puts most women vendors at a disadvantage because they come to work with their children, and the council holds that certain profitable sites in the central business district are not child-friendly. The designated places that the council deems safe are crowded with other traders, meaning profits are low.
“One can’t sell anything,” she says.
She has resigned that the only way to survive is by operating in the profitable areas without a license and running away when police approach. She says the vendors are used to the cat-and-mouse game.
“We usually notify each other when municipal or inspectorate police are approaching," she says. "I gather my wares and dash into the street, leaving behind my child alone in the pavement."
Her child is 2 years old.
"I wander for a few minutes and then return when they are gone,” she says.
When authorities arrest unlicensed vendors, they confiscate their wares and charge them a $5 fine in order to be released, according to the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s Licensing Inspectorate. Authorities either destroy the raided wares or sell them in a public auction.
James Sabau, Harare provincial spokesman for the Zimbabwe Republic Police, says that it’s the police’s duty to enforce the law when it comes to licenses. He attributes the frequent police raids to the continual complaints received from licensed business owners. These owners say that the unlicensed vendors harass their customers if they choose to shop in their stores instead of on the streets.
“Those with licenses need our protection,” Sabau says. “And the police will continue enforcing the law so that all traders are motivated to have licenses.”
He says that the police have also received complaints from members of the public that people who sell their wares in undesignated selling points are an inconvenience.
“They spread their goods for sale in pavements [and] are inconveniencing the innocent traveling public, who are then forced to jump the spread items,” he says.
He says that the clusters of illegal vendors also detract from the aesthetics of the capital.
“This does not give a good image, especially for a capital city,” he says.
But neither does poverty, says Mfundo Mlilo, director of Combined Harare Residents Association, which represents residents in 46 wards. He says the association receives many complaints from vendors during its monthly meetings about the confiscation of their goods by police.
He says that taking away the vendors’ wares is not a sustainable solution. It instead only leaves vendors poorer, as sometimes they even have to borrow money to buy the goods in the first place.
“The local authorities should come up with suitable vending sites where traders can easily reach their customers and other viable solutions because taking away the traded goods will only increase poverty among the residents of Harare,” he says.
Vendors say that raids will not make unemployment go away. Rather, losing the goods they purchase for sale puts them in weaker positions to buy licenses.
Some vendors suggest that the government offer quarterly licenses, which would be more affordable. The department does not offer short-term licenses.
Mlilo says that the association has been engaging the city council and police to try to broker a solution. The association has drafted a memorandum of understanding with the council in an attempt to improve relations between the residents and the municipality.
The government spokesman was out of the country to comment on the issue of vending without a license.
But in regards to unemployment, the government has acknowledged the need to promote employment creation and poverty reduction. Its Medium Term Plan outlines economic policies, projects and programs for 2010 to 2015, such as supporting small and medium enterprises and cooperatives to integrate them into the mainstream economy and planning trainings in management and entrepreneurship.
Nongovernmental organizations declined to comment on the situation because of tense relations with the government following the announcement of elections scheduled for this year.
