The city fathers have accused the police for over stepping their jurisdiction, which is enforced by the municipal police, whereas the police correlations department says it move is meant to bring sanity to the pavements.
The Mayor, Lionel De Necker, condemned the police for unprofessional conduct as they orchestrated a crackdown on vendors with valid hawkers licenses.
Matabeleland South police spokesperson, Inspector Tafanana Dzirutwe, refuted the allegations saying, “The police are mandated by the constitution to enforce all of the country’s laws these might be criminal or statute laws and by-laws. Our operations were in the best interest of the tax paying business community.”
Vendors said the police had targeted well known supporters of the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC.
“Zanu (PF) supporters were not affected. We hold valid hawkers licenses from the municipality but we were still affected. The police must have been working under instructions from Zanu (PF). The raids were highly politicized,” claimed one vendor, who refused to be named for fear of victimization.
Post published in: News