Council to open Mupedzanhamo for 800 vendors next ...

Council to open Mupedzanhamo for 800 vendors next week

Bridget Mabanda

City of Harare has announced that it will open Mupedzanhamo next week and has plans to open Chishawasha ground before year end.

“As SMEs Committee we are working with all stakeholders involved and we are in our final preparatory stage to reopen Mupedzanhamo market by next week,” The City of Harare wrote on its Facebook Page yesterday in a post signed off by City of Harare SMEs Chairperson Councillor Denford Ngadziore.

The post says Mupedzanhamo has a capacity for 800 traders.

The post goes on to say that Chishawashe Ground which was fenced off with metal mesh years ago will also be opened in the next few weeks.

“Before the year end, we hope to open Chishawasha grounds market which is supposed to accommodate about 3500 traders,” reads the post.

This development comes on the back of violent clashes over control of vending spaces that have disrupted life in Mbare.

City of Harare has long ceded rights to control vending space to space barons who collect fees from vendors and remit nothing to the local authority.

Mupedzanhamo has been closed since 2020 forcing traders to seek vending places outside the market.

Prior to its closing, Mupedzanhamo was dogged by allegations that the same space barons had taken all the leases of vending spaces and sublet at profits of over 1000 percent on the pittance they paid to council.

It is not yet clear what criteria City of Harare will use to allocate space in the new set up and if they will keep the space barons out this time.

Speaking to Zim Now, City of Harare spokesperson Mr Innocent Ruwende said there will be sanity at the market since the situation is now being monitored by the ZRP.