• purge of extortion and racketeering gangs
Brian Rungano Temba
Harare Metropolitan Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Mr Tafadzwa Muguti has warned space barons against extorting vendors and small scale producers.
Mr Muguti said this on Friday, January 14, 2022 after a joint clean up exercise with Harare City Council at Glenview market.
“As it stands, we have a lot of space barons and extortion that has been going on in the informal markets.
Furniture manufacturers and vendors are being charged a lot of money by individuals who do not represent the City Council,” said Mr Muguti.
The original design for Glenview informal market is that it should be a small scale industry for furniture manufacturers.
Their vending stands are supposed to be allocated by Harare City and rates paid to City Council monthly.
Apparently, just like in Mbare these vendors where being extorted by space barons who would have applied for many stands and sub-letting them.
Conmen masquerading as representatives of the Ruling Party ZANU PF also took advantage of the unsuspecting vendors and swindled ‘protection fees’ from them, in the process prejudicing Council of thousands of dollars in potential revenue.
For each table, wardrobe, couch or bed sold, these fraudsters demanded at least USD $5. This contributed to unwarranted inflation of final selling price of these products.
“Today we have sanitised this place.
I want to issue a stern warning to those who are masquerading as representing the ruling party ZANU PF or any organisation collecting money from the manufacturers”.
“This is gong to stop and we are also going to make arrests for extortion on anyone who comes misrepresenting and demanding money from the manufacturers,” added Mr Muguti.
To ensure that order prevails after their departure they set up an interim committee that will run for a full year in collaboration with the office of Secretary for State Affairs and Devolution, the police and City Council.
A Police post will be built in the market to ensure that law and order is maintained and any fraudulent activities are reported and acted upon iquickly.
In the interest of public health, sanitation and convenience, a modern toilet will be built and kept open to the public.
” The ILO has donated equipment which will be used by manufacturers. The market will be modified to make it customer friendly.
Ministry of Women’s and SME Development is also on board with the formalisation of markets and will be offering training in terms of customer service and other skills that manufacturers might need,” he added.
Mr Muguti said that they were putting order in line with the Provincial Economic Plan to ensure that markets start formalising so that they are better capacitated and accountable.
The Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution formerly known as Provincial Development Coordinator (PDC) now reports to the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution.
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