In an interview, Tracey Mutaviri, Managing Director of Lyons Maid said the council had used Salisbury City by-laws in effecting the ban on its vendors in the CBD. Salisbury was changed to Harare after Independence.
“This is Harare and we are in Zimbabwe and they had said we cannot sell our products in the CBD because we did not have a licence to do so. But they had not told us about this, and we are not using the Salisbury City by-laws any longer. I can now tell you that we are allowed to sell our products in the CBD after negotiating with them, said Mutaviri.
“They just did not respect us and what we are doing. Our vendors mean very much to us because we have more than 1 200 of them now fully employed.” The Harare City Council last month chased out of the city centre Lyons Maid vendors – most of whom are unemployed women. “We are no longer allowed to enter the city centre because our sister firm, Dairibord, has not paid its levies to the Harare City Council,” a Lyons Maid worker said then.
“We used to make a lot of cash selling in the city centre but we are no longer do so. If the City Council officials see you in the city centre they just take your products away from you. If they want they can arrest you and then you must pay a fine.”
Post published in: News