Perpetua Murungweni
Vendors who ply their trade at Masvingo city’s biggest marketplace popularly known as Chitima are complaining over unhygienic conditions prevailing at the market and said they fear for their lives in the face of the current cholera outbreak due to poor waste management.
Speaking to TellZim News, Chitima Fruit and Veg Committee Chairperson Martin Shaka said the situation at the market was a ticking health time bomb and called on the local authority to take action before a disaster happens.
He went on to accuse council of failing to communicate with them in time especially on refuse collection saying council does not listen when they complain.
“Communication is a two way process, our council office bearers know much than us facility users, when we raise pertinent issues that affect the flow of business, they don’t listen to us in time and their way of communicating leaves a lot to be desired.
“We know quite well that there are different departments within the council that can attend to our problems in the meantime awaiting policy from councillors but council only cares about our money more than its customers.
“We have high volumes of human traffic everyday but ablution facilities are few, always blocked, not useable and not accommodative to people with disabilities who are part of our clients.
“We are paying rates every month but up to date we still have inadequate infrastructure, poor security and substandard bays,” said Shaka.
Nhamo Pandukai said the population of vendors at Chitima was overwhelming and people were always overcrowded.
“The population is growing more than the available space and we are now overcrowded here. Vendors and customers have poor ablution facilities and waste management so we are prone to diseases like cholera,” said Pandukai.
He also called on council to liaise with ZESA to electrify the place for lighting saying at times they receive deliveries at night and without electricity they do not have lights and end up using candles and open fires that puts their wares at risk of catching fire.
“We are pleading with council to make arrangements with ZESA so that we can have electricity to use for lights here. Sometime in June we lost our items to fire as we use candles and torches for lights because sometimes our deliveries come at night or early in the morning while it’s still dark. The lights will also help our security guards at night to easily identify thieves,” said Pandukai.
Another vendor Charles Ziki said the toilets at Chitima are few and cannot accommodate everyone and people end up using the bush as an alternative.
“Our toilets are very few and are failing to accommodate everyone here in the market. Both fruit and vegetable sellers as well as those from the flea markets use the same toilet. We end up using the bush which is just few steps from the market and it’s hazardous considering the current cholera outbreak because we can’t all have access to the toilet at once,” said Ziki.
Tendai Chivere, also a vendor implored council to improve security at the market by erecting a new fence and putting a gate saying currently there was no gate giving a hard time to security guards who man the place.
“We plead with council to at least fence the market place for security reasons, our place is not safe because it’s just an open space and because of that we are prone to losing our goods to thieves,” said Chivere.
Contacted for comment, ward 9 councillor Bernard Muchokwa said he was at Chitima with relevant departments from council and were looking at how best they can address the issue of overpopulation saying if there was a cholera outbreak at Chitima the whole of Masvingo will be at risk.
“I am currently at Chitima right now, we were having a regular clean-up campaign and we discovered that there were challenges which needed to be addressed urgently. I have since called some relevant departments from council and we are looking at solutions that can be put in place urgently.
“The market is overpopulated even the regularised one is overpopulated then if we add the illegal vendors outside we see that if we have a cholera outbreak we will have a disaster. A cholera outbreak at Chitima means the whole of Masvingo will be at risk,” said Muchokwa.
He went on to say he had noted that because of the number of people the toilets were always clogging leaving people desperate and they end up doing open defecation in nearby bushes.
The councillor also implored people to take responsibility saying there was no reason for people to throw litter everywhere and also avoid using material that blocks toilets.
“We need a change of mind set, people cannot dump litter everywhere and expect council to pick up litter. Let us complain of uncollected bins not things that we have control over.
“I heard people use cardboard boxes and other foreign materials in toilets and that leads to blockages. We should take responsibility, the issue of litter and cholera doesn’t need a budget, it needs responsibility,” said Muchokwa.
