This week beginning 10 February 2025, I have been inundated with enquiries about the closure of 5th Avenue controversial market as reported in the Sunday News following a full council meeting resolution made last week at a full council meeting. I would state my opinion at the end of this long piece. Let me first thank the old women and men who worked tirelessly to TRY and ensure that there is sanity at 5Avenue, a series of meetings have been held at higher echelons of power and the lowest of all. The Bulawayo Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Working Group has held several meetings trying to come up with a solution to a plethora of problems bedeviling 5th Avenue.
A bit of history of 5th Avenue
According to members of the BMSMEs Working Group 5th Avenue was opened after the 2005 Murambatsvina Clean Up exercise as a holding space for displaced women and men. BCC would then close the road to ensure that people have somewhere to work from. It then attracted more people as they joined the trading spaces. Associations such as Bulawayo Upcoming Traders Association (BUTA) are reportedly as some of the pioneers of 5th Avenue among others.
Rise of space barons
Fast forward to year 2020 when the government ordered all local authorities to close all potential COVID19 hotspots like market places during the lockdown period, you will remember that those women and men duly complied with the directive and vacated the trading area. This would then spark all the problems you see today. Some unscrupulous individuals started mobilizing and bussing people to occupy the trading area without following the due process of re-opening the market area. BCC sometime in year 2022 resumed the process to refurbish and reopen the market, all hell broke loose. The Chronicle Newspaper reported that thousands could have fallen victim to unscrupulous criminals masquerading as informal traders’ unions as well as space barons, claiming to have the capacity to secure vending bays, some were alleged to have paid USD3- USD250 to secure the trading bay.
These individuals would then transcend into notorious space barons who would collect some fees like USD1 – USD3 per day as protection fees from being harassed since they occupied the area without permission from Bulawayo City Council or government that had directed all local authorities to close such spaces. Unfortunately such individuals have seem to be unwilling to cooperate or join associations so that they are assisted and be properly accounted under the municipal bylaws, they prefer to pay USD1-USD3 per day to their masters and not pay USD11 licence per month to the local authority and then we see the cat and mouse with municipal police. https://www.chronicle.co.zw/vendors-scammed-by-criminals-posing-as-trade-unions-and-space-barons-ahead-of-5th-avenue-market-commissioning/
https://www.newsday.co.zw/southerneye/local/article/200035330/bcc-urged-to-be-tough-against-space-barons
Drug and illicit substance haven
The rise of space barons gave rise to the proliferation of all nefarious activities in the market where some people started selling drugs and illicit substances because were protected by such individuals. This then created problems for the local authority because it had to collect waste from the site from people who are not paying a cent to the City, the local authority must service ablution facilities for people who are not contributing anything towards labor responsible for the toilets. Some individuals would relieve themselves on sanitary lanes because toilets had malfunctioned, some would remember one incident of a lady who was reported to be have been electrocuted when was relieving herself in one sanity lane in the trading area. https://www.sundaynews.co.zw/chaos-on-5th-avenue-market-area-gives-city-a-perennial-headache/ Following the unfortunate incident of electrocution my organization Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association partnered with WILD and refurbished toilets at corner 5TH Avenue and Fife Street to improve their usability but sadly those toilets are now an eye sore once again.
The previous designated 5th Avenue occupants
Let us again remember that there were women and women who complied to move away when it was closed officially, this meant that after the occupation by unscrupulous individuals working in cahoots with some dangerous elements, these women and men had no place to work from, so a conflict ensured now between those who previously worked from 5th Avenue and those who occupied it through disregarding the bylaws.
Bulawayo Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMES) Working Group efforts
BMSMESs made efforts to try and bring sanity to 5th Avenue, a series of meeting were held with Bulawayo City Council to try ang negotiate for a resolution, BCC argued that it is difficult to regularize groups that allocated themselves trading outside the municipal bylaws. It was agreed in year 2023 to re- allocate trading bays through collaboration the BMSMEs platform. Some association jostled for the slots and pushed to get the lions of the vending bays but still chaos continued, some individuals mobilized people to resist the re-allocation exercise. BCC issued several warnings that it was going forcibly evict those who are not designated. Several proposals were made for example; to have a dollar per day collection by BCC, still arguments arose that it is difficult to penetrate the area and collect revenue due to the congestion and politicization of the working spaces. The other proposal was that some areas can be opened in the City centre and introduce weekend trading. https://cite.org.zw/byo-informal-traders-face-sunday-deadline-to-vacate-5th-avenue/
The Bulawayo Informal Sector Working Group (BISWG) now known as the Bulawayo Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMES) Working Group refers to a group representing traders associations in Bulawayo, primarily focused on advocating for their needs and concerns regarding trading spaces and regulations to the local council, the Bulawayo City Council (BCC), particularly in relation to the designated trading area on 5th Avenue
Problems at 5th Avenue
* Politicisation of informal trading as a potential political fodder and name dropping to hoodwink people, try to win votes during elections. These claims were said in one high level meeting here in Bulawayo
* Some individuals are now space barons who make people pay protection fees and they pocket all the funds at the expense of service delivery for informal traders like refuse collection, servicing of toilets, provision of water and security.
* Licensed informal traders are arguing that it is unfair for them to be paying licenses whilst others are permitted to trade freely without paying a cent to the local authority.
* Retail and wholesale shop owners are complaining that informal traders are sitting in front of their shops, taking their customers are expected to pay taxes to government and other rates to the local authority.
* Some informal traders are accused of selling drugs and illicit substances particularly to the youths who frequent the market.
* There are allegations that some informal traders commute overnight to sell and leave their waste lying on the streets and in the morning local informal traders are blamed for wanton littering. The same traders are accused of using sanitary lanes as places for relieving themselves and local traders have bear the stench smell coming from the sanitary lanes.
My view on the proposed closure
I think the problems of 5th Avenue go beyond the closure or opening, I say so because it was closed in year 2020 but it continued “open” albeit by people who disregarded, desecrated on the statutory directive and bylaws. What will stop the same people now to disregard the current reported council resolution. What mechanisms has council put in place to ensure that this resolution is complied with? My view is that this needs a political will to be implemented across the political divide anything less than that is piece meal to me and not sustainable, its like doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. In its current form it is a poison chalice, that supposedly market has had a lot of toxic mechanization and shenanigans.
Way forward
* Need for an honest dialogue between the local authority, government and informal economy associations.
* Need to depoliticize informality and ensure that solutions are proffered in the best interests of the City of Bulawayo
* Need to look around the City and perhaps re- introduce weekend trading, this may reduce the pressure for trading daily as some may opt to work on weekends only and may help decongest the city.
* Expedite the opening of Nkulumane Fruit and Vegetable Market, this will aid to decongest the City as some informal traders will start accessing products outside the City Centre.
* Need to change mindsets and create more business hubs outside the City Centre, revitalize previous popularly shopping malls like Entumbane, create more human and vehicular activities i.e work closely with transporters. Draw lessons from Ntemba from Pumula East and 7 turn in Nketa which were a barren before COVID19 but some traders created hubs there and to date people are scrambling to trade there. Similarly, at Highlanders Market, people didn’t want to go there saying “its not a prime spot – akula mali” some traders went there, today its full to the brim, all want to go and trade there.
* Work on the mindset change on the belief that money can only be made in the CBD.
* At macro level, work on creating jobs, as it is known that some are necessity entrepreneurs driven by subsistence and incubate opportunity entrepreneurs driven by entrepreneurship and passion.
Michael Mdladla Ndiweni, Executive Director for Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association, writes in his personal capacity.
Email: mikejnrsind82@gmail.com
Phone: +263713635908