Municipal workers and police officers were injured in violent clashes with street vendors in Harare and Chitungwiza as a government-backed campaign to clear pavements and remove informal trading structures met fierce resistance.
The confrontations erupted as enforcement teams moved into busy parts of Harare’s central business district, where vendors refused orders to leave the streets. Stones were thrown, insults exchanged and officers were forced to retreat or call for backup after several council officials and municipal police officers were injured.
The clashes were reported along First Street, Speke Avenue, Robson Manyika Avenue and Julius Nyerere Way. Fighting also broke out near Bata Stores, at the corner of Bank Street and Leopold Takawira Street, as enforcement teams tried to push traders away from pavements and road entrances.
Near ABC Auctions along Seke Road, municipal police and vendors initially pushed and shoved before the confrontation developed into fistfights. In Chitungwiza, violence and stone-throwing broke out at the Unit L shopping area when council teams arrived to demolish illegal trading structures.
The unrest has become the most serious test yet for Operation Chenesa, a campaign launched by the government and Harare authorities to clear streets, remove informal traders from unauthorised sites and restore order in urban areas. The campaign is being led by Local Government and Public Works minister Daniel Garwe, permanent secretary Tafadzwa Muguti and Harare mayor Jacob Mafume.
Garwe issued a final warning that vendors operating outside approved locations had to leave from September 9. The government said the operation would begin in Harare before being extended to other cities, towns and urban settlements. It has described the clean-up as a drive to improve sanitation, reopen pavements and deal with congestion caused by unregulated trading.
The campaign has brought thousands of traders face to face with municipal enforcement officers. Many vendors say they depend on daily sales to feed their families and that the approved markets either do not have enough space or are too poorly serviced to support their businesses. Some say the sites are too far from established customer traffic, while others say they cannot afford the charges and transport costs involved in moving their goods.
The dispute has also exposed a growing political fight over responsibility for the operation. Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa has distanced the ruling party from the crackdown and the demolition of illegal structures in the capital, saying the enforcement of city by-laws is the responsibility of opposition-led urban councils.
In Parliament, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi blamed Harare City Council for removing vendors and illegal structures without a master plan.
“The government never removed anyone from the streets,” Ziyambi said. “It is the municipal police leading the operation.”
Harare City Council, however, says the resistance is being funded by drug dealers who want to protect illegal trading networks. Mafume said the clean-up was not only about the appearance of the city, but also about unregistered medicines and sexual stimulants being sold in the streets.
“We are not only targeting to clean Harare, but there are issues of drug lords,” he said. Is it normal that someone is coming to sell three packets of Zap Nax?
“These are the people who are selling all sorts of unregistered drugs and sexual stimulants.”
He added: “During our clean-up, we have seen people intoxicated and if this is not addressed, this trend will continue.
“Those people who are taking this lightly are doing the nation a disservice. Those who are selling drugs should stop. We are not only advocating for the cleanliness of the city, but also the cleanliness of our bodies.”
The council’s claims have added to the anger among traders, who say the campaign has treated all vendors as criminals and offered no workable plan for those who are being removed. The arrival of demolition teams and municipal police has repeatedly triggered running battles, with traders scattering into side streets before returning when officers leave.
Residents and traders have also raised concerns over the seizure of goods and the conduct of some enforcement officers. Harare Residents Trust director Precious Shumba said the vendors would continue trading from the streets unless the government and local authorities provided alternative places to work.
“Vendors will remain where they are as long as the local authorities and the government have not provided alternative places to operate from,” Shumba said.
“The response by vendors is normal human behaviour when put under pressure. For a very long time, the vendors have endured torment and routine harassment by municipal police whose officers have made it their tradition to collect undocumented fees.”
Shumba added: “The City of Harare has, without logic or respect for the rule of law, continued its assault on the dignity of vendors by using rude language, demeaning them and undermining their opportunity to earn a living.
“These vendors are breadwinners, providing essential financial support to their families for their household survival and sustainability.”
He said public officials had a duty to listen to traders and include them in any plan to deal with congestion and disorderly trading in the central business district. He warned that another confrontation could quickly make the situation worse.
“Triggering a real physical confrontation needs one or two more trigger events to worsen the tensions, hence responsible officials have to take all the necessary steps to defuse the situation,” he warned.
The pressure on vendors is being intensified by the country’s weak formal job market. More than 80 per cent of Zimbabwe’s working population earns a living in the informal sector, a figure that includes street traders, market sellers, cross-border dealers and small-scale service providers. Vending has become a safety net for retrenched workers, school leavers, widows and families who cannot survive on irregular wages.
Combined Harare Residents Association director Reuben Akili said the source of the conflict was the economy rather than a refusal by traders to accept order.
“What is pushing the vendors out there is poverty,” Akili said.
“As long as we do not build a strong economy, create jobs and offer viable alternatives, we maintain our view that the fundamental issue which drove vendors onto the streets is the poor economy. Hence, we will continue to see the vendors.”
The government has encouraged traders to move to designated markets, but officials have not provided a clear account of how many spaces are available or how many of the displaced vendors can be accommodated. The gap between the number of people being removed and the space available at formal markets has left many traders stranded.
Church leaders have also been brought into the operation in an effort to build support for the clean-up. Garwe said the government could not restore order in Harare without the involvement of faith-based organisations, which had initially been left out of the campaign.
But the latest clashes show that the dispute has moved beyond a disagreement over pavements and market stalls. Vendors are now organising to defend their income, while municipal authorities are increasing pressure to keep cleared areas from being occupied again. Each new enforcement operation risks another confrontation in the crowded streets of Harare and the surrounding towns.
For now, the pavements remain the centre of a struggle between the government’s promise of cleaner cities and the daily survival of people who have nowhere else to trade. With vendors refusing to leave and enforcement teams determined to continue, further violence is likely whenever demolition crews and municipal police return to the affected areas.