TellZim reporter
People with Disabilities (PWD) who are informal traders in Masvingo city have received a major boost towards their operations following revelations by City Council that their plight would be considered by ensuring provision of trading areas to cater for their special conditions.
Speaking to TellZim News recently, Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economies Association (ZCIEA) Masvingo territory president and national chairperson for People with Disabilities (PWDs) Tavengwa Mazhambe said they engaged council who promised to address their issues.
“We have faced quite a number of challenges as PWDs informal traders among them not being able to access the market stalls available as they are not user friendly to our conditions. We once raised the issues with the previous council management under Town Clerk Adolf Gusha, but they could not address out issues.
“Recently we approached current administration at Town House who promised to address our issues. When we approached council, the Town Clerk (Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa) advised us to put our issues in writing to the Chamber Secretary’s office and we are looking forward to a favourable solution to the challenges we face,” said Mazhambe.
He went on to say most informal traders with disabilities are preferring the Central Business District (CBD) to the Garikai markets as they feel they cannot compete with their able bodied counterparts.
“If you look at most of those informal traders plying in the CBD you would discover that they suffer from various forms of disability. It is not their wish or intention to leave established markets for CBD where they are vulnerable to law enforcement operations that lead to loss of wares, but they have no option.
“At the legal markets, some would not be able to access facilities while others who can’t talk or hear find it virtually difficult to sell their goods. For example some would engage in marketing their goods by shouting for customers, but would a person who cannot talk do in that case. That kind of stiff competition indirectly relegates them to the CBD where they are vulnerable to goods confiscation as well as other forms of harassment at hands of enforcement agents,” he added.
Mazhambe also bemoaned lack of collateral as the other major challenge informal traders with disabilities are facing in the aftermath of Covid-19 effects on businesses.
“Covid-19 also hit hard on traders in the informal sector. Like any section of the society, PWDs were spared neither. What now boggles our minds is lack of collateral security in case one wants to borrow funds to resuscitate his/her business.
“According to information we had in the recent past PWDs form 15 percent of the national population and of that total around 50 percent was affected by the pandemic. We however continue to call for the decriminalization of informal sector trading since unemployment is on the upward trend,” said Mazhambe.
Informal traders have often been involved in a series of running battles with law enforcement agents namely Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and municipal police where they suffer arrests and loss of goods in case of arrests.
