bailiffs

Market Bailiffs Celebrate Improved Sanitary Standards

Market Bailiffs have been re-deployed under the Sizimele Market Aggregation Project to monitor compliance in market places in regard to COVID-19 regulations and sensitise people on mitigation strategies to reduce the spread of the virus. Market Bailiffs have also been raising awareness in market places about the Bulawayo City Council Bylaws, these being the laws which govern the informal sector in the city. Market Bailiffs have reported on improved sanitation levels in different markets in the city from the time they started visiting the markets. They also claim victory for this positive development as they have been visiting markets weekly and stressing to informal traders on the importance of hygiene in the trading spaces as a public health issue. Siphiwe Nkomo a Market Bailiff revealed that at the time when she was doing her visit at the Highlanders Market, the surrounding environment was clean as well as the toilets. Simiselo Ncube echoed the same sentiments as she observed that the 6th Avenue Market is now cleaner than before. The Market Aggregation Project supported by the Zimbabwe Building Resilience Fund (ZBRF) has given Bailiffs space to capacitate other vendors on the new Bulawayo City Council (BCC) Bylaws. The Bylaws also call for good sanitary standards in market places to prevent the spread of diseases. They are also advising informal traders to use designated trading spaces in order to avoid confrontations with Municipal Police. Sharon Chiwa, a Market Bailiff said that, “A lot of them did not know anything about the Bylaws.” The market visits have been helpful to informal traders as they have managed to capacitate informal traders about the law and their rights. Informal Traders are advised to renew their vending licences since the vending business year has just commenced and for those who do not have licences, they are advised to apply for them. Bailiffs have been telling informal traders of the requirements when applying for the licences which comprise of two passport-size photos, fingerprints and a medical certificate of health for those who will be selling food. Bailiffs have also been telling informal traders about the revised licencing fees which most informal traders did not know of, with the Central Business District at $23 for licences and $11,50 for monthly rentals and in the residential suburbs licences being $11,50 and monthly rentals $5,75 United States dollars or Zimbabwean Dollars equivalent. Bailiffs have also gathered that informal traders are calling for the decentralisation of licencing from the Dugmoore Clinic to City Council offices in different wards. Informal traders highlighted that the centralisation of the licensing process makes the licensing process slow and makes them lose a lot of trading hours while they queue for consecutive days.

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COVID-19 Documentary on the cards

The Sizimele Consortium is launching a documentary that highlights the impact of COVID-19 on vendors and informal traders in Bulawayo that is expected to stir debate on the plight of vendors in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. The documentary spotlights vendors and informal traders who have been affected by the pandemic and amplifies their voices on challenges faced due to COVID-19 lockdown which had a far reaching impact on their livelihoods.  The documentary explores facts, tracks and documents the changes resulting from the intervention by the consortium to mitigate the spread of the disease. Trained Market Bailiffs give testimonies of their experiences while educating informal traders and monitoring compliance to COVID-19 regulations in food and agricultural markets in Bulawayo.  The documentary also features Bulawayo City Council (BCC) who have been leading the re-marking of trading bays in efforts to ensure adherence to social distancing as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Sizimele also gives details on the mitigation strategies that it is providing to vendors and informal traders in fighting the pandemic. Beneficiaries from food and agricultural markets, who received COVID-19 fighting materials from Sizimele Consortium share testimonies on how the support from the Consortium has helped them in fighting the spread of the Corona virus. Sizimele distributed COVID-19 mitigation materials in the form of 346 sanitizers, 1000 face masks, 50 hand washing water dispensers and 14×5 litres paint for demarcating boundaries in food and agricultural markets. The consortium also trained 92 informal traders on Business and Financial literacy. The documentary also weaves the positive impact of the knowledge that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) traders attained in the Business and Financial Literacy trainings that were held under the Market Aggregation project to inspire SMEs owners to regularise their economic units.

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‘Municipal police bribes rife in marketplaces’ – Vendors

Bulawayo vendors and traders have raised concerns to Market Bailiffs on the continuous allegations of the infamous demand of bribes by Municipal police in marketplaces. Market Bailiffs who monitor COVID-19 compliance in food and agricultural markets in Bulawayo, under the Sizimele Consortium funded by Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) in the Market Aggregation COVID-19 Vendors Response – Market Access project, have received reports from vendors and informal traders, that municipal police have been demanding bribes from vendors who sell at undesignated places and without licenses in order to continue with their activities. The high risk of spreading COVID-19 has been exacerbated by  municipal police who solicit for bribes to allow traders to operate at undesignated places without sanitisers nor hand washing water dispensers and not observing physical distancing. This has continued to undermine COVID-19 preventive efforts made at organized markets. Ever since the COVID-19 induced lockdown started earlier this year, vendors and informal traders have been struggling to make ends meet. Trading activities were banned, however, some vendors resorted to going back to the streets in order to be able to fend for their families. Vendors who sell at Total Service Station in Mpopoma have been maintaining their marketplace through paying bribes to municipal police, Madade Ndlovu, a Market Bailiff told the Special Edition Vendors Voice. “We urge the local authorities to take action against the corrupt officials and we implore vendors and informal traders to obtain vending licenses so that they are allocated designated vending spaces,” said Bakani Ncube who coordinates Market Bailiffs activities in the consortium. By the month of November, according to the Ministry of Health and Childcare (2020), Bulawayo recorded 2306 cases, 80 deaths and 1765 recoveries. As at 13 December, 2020, Bulawayo has recorded 2836 cases, 85 deaths and 2220 recoveries. Sizimele continues to urge vendors and informal traders to follow the COVID-19 protocols with caution as the number of cases is constantly on the rise. Photo credit – google.

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“Toilets, a headache for vendors” – Market Bailiffs

Market Bailiffs have noted that toilets pose a health hazard for vendors and informal traders in market places.    Sharon Sitsha, one of the Market Bailiffs told Vendors Voice that vendors go to nearby houses to ask for the use of toilets but the challenge is the unavailability of running water. This exposes vendors and informal traders to the potential of an outbreak of diseases such as dysentery and cholera in market places. “In North End shops, I learnt that toilet keys are not accessible to everyone due to different reasons, one person keeps the keys making it difficult for other vendors to ask for the toilet keys,” said Thabani Gumede, another Market Bailiff. Bulawayo City Council (BCC) had promised to allocate vending bays and decentralise markets to suburbs as a way of decongesting the CBD and curbing the spread of COVID-19, however only a few markets have been opened in suburbs like Pumula and Magwegwe (Konron). Last month BCC stated that the process of reallocation of vending bays is slow due to lack of resources. In the available markets, only vendors with licenses are allowed to operate. “Vendors with licenses are given spaces in markets, most vendors do not have licenses because the process of obtaining a vending license is cumbersome,” said Aleck Ndlovu, BVTA President and Market Bailiff. Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA) members who do not have licenses and who own Small and Medium Enterprises have been trained under the Market Aggregation COVID-19 Vendors Response – Market Access Project (CVR – MAP) funded by Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) in the Sizimele Consortium, on the importance of having vending licenses and adherence to authority regulations. The sites where vendors sell at do not have toilets and running water. The absence of water exposes them to contracting COVID-19 because as frontline service providers, they have to wash their hands regularly especially after handling money and they also have to provide water for customers to wash hands with soap as they cannot afford sanitisers. Through the Market Aggregation CVR – MAP, BVTA has managed to donate sanitisers to vendors and informal traders in operating markets to sanitise their hands frequently even if there is no water.

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