By a Correspondent
Street vendors in Harare have formed WhatsApp groups to monitor and share information about the movements of municipal police officers in real time as authorities intensify efforts to remove informal traders from the city centre.
The development comes as the City of Harare has embarked on a crackdown on illegal vending following a directive by Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe, who ordered vendors operating on the streets and in undesignated spaces to relocate to designated trading areas by September 9.
In a bid to outsmart municipal police, the vendors have established networks of informants who provide updates on the whereabouts of municipal police officers and senior officials, enabling traders to quickly move out of targeted areas before enforcement teams arrive.
Messages circulating in some of the groups include the locations of key officials, including Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume and Minister Garwe, highlighting the extent of the surveillance system vendors have developed in response to the operation.
The council announced that it had deployed more than 200 municipal police officers across Harare’s Central Business District (CBD) to enforce the directive and clear vendors from the CBD and major streets, including sections of ED Mnangagwa Road where traders were roasting maize cobs and selling other goods.
However, vendors say the latest operation is unlikely to force them off the streets permanently.
“This is not new to us. It has happened before. We cannot abandon our livelihoods because of a situation that has occurred before,” said one vendor.
“We pay school fees through vending, and they will not stop us.”
The emergence of the WhatsApp networks underscores growing tensions between authorities seeking to restore order in the capital and informal traders who rely on street vending as their primary source of income.
Garwe has repeatedly defended the clean-up exercise, saying it is aimed at restoring order, improving sanitation and addressing congestion in Harare’s CBD. He has also said the operation is not intended to victimise vendors but to ensure that trading takes place in designated and regulated spaces.
Despite the ongoing enforcement campaign, many vendors continue to occupy key locations in the city centre, setting the stage for what appears to be an escalating cat-and-mouse battle between traders and municipal authorities.
