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| The under re-construction Civic Centre flea market |
Ratidzo
Munembi
City of Masvingo is
rapidly building new market stalls in place of some of the old, shoddy structures
that had become a terrible eyesores for the time preceding the Covid-19
national lockdown.
In April, the Ministry
of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing ordered all local
authorities to take advantage of the lockdown to clean up their informal market
places by destroying illegal structures and building proper stalls.
Masvingo responded to
the call by destroying illegal extensions on the shanty Chitima market which is
made up of the fresh produce section and the miscellaneous section, before razing
down much of the main market in town situated adjacent to the Civic Centre.
Part of the vegetable
section of Chitima market is now undergoing reconstruction, with better
materials being used than the makeshift wood and plastic that had covered the
place before.
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| Part of the veg section of Chitima market under re-construction |
Similar work is also
being done on part of the Civic Centre flea market, where some more acceptable
materials are being used in the rebuilding process.
In October 2019, City
of Masvingo Housing and Community Services director, Levison Nzvura had told
TellZim News that council planned to upgrade Chitima market into a better place
of doing business by properly enclosing it and regularizing traders’
operations.
[ read similar story here https://tellzim.com/2019/10/no-more-free-reign-at-chitima-vendors.html ]
“We have been unable to
keep track of the exact number of people doing beusines there because there is
no consolidated database of traders. People come and occupy a stall for a day
or two and then go away. Nobody pay for the bays except for a few so council is
making huge losses there.
“We have done a lot to
make sure conditions there are good but sometimes the people themselves make a
mess of their own market. People use the strangest of objects in the toilets
leading to blockages, and it’s council that has to unblock them despite that
most of the very same people do not pay anything to use the market,” said
Nzvura then.
He also said council
wanted to rationalise operations at the market so that proper services could be
provided.
“There are about 700
bays there and we want to know who owns which bay so that we can make follow
ups in terms of rentals. We will than use the money collected to improve
facilities and put a good shade starting with the vegetable section. We want a
proper market where people can go and shop with confidence,” he said.
