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Mbare Musika delayed re-opening a cruel blow to farmers
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
January 31, 2006

THE illegal Makwawarara Commission is so bereft of creative and useful policies that it can only lurch from one incomprehensible action to the next. It arrogantly treats Harare as a chessboard and our citizens as mere pawns in the game.

The case of Mbare Musika is a prime example - ostensibly closed because of the threat of cholera (caused by the Commission's incompetent administration), traders were forced to move to the City Sports Centre, an entirely unsuitable site with little public transport access and minimal ablutions and amenities.

A few weeks later they are evicted from the centre to return to Mbare. Trading is an essential part of our lives. Farmers grow crops to sell to consumers. Consumers depend on markets to purchase their food requirements. Small-scale farmers seldom have the resources to store fresh produce and need unfettered access to markets.

Media reports (Zimdaily 30/1/06) and pronouncements that the farmers would need to part ways with $3 million in order to do business is the highest order of cruelty and insensitivity on the part of the illegal commission running the affairs of the City of Harare.

The reaction to this joint pronouncement by the illegal commission and the Ministry of Local Government was shock and disbelief.

Noah Marume, a horticulturalist from Murehwa was quoted in the Zimdaily saying: "This is unfortunate, it means we are going to double the prices of our goods, the government is trying to reap us of our money for their misrule."

The delays in re-opening Mbare Musika are intolerable and will result in massive hardships for farmer and consumer alike. The imposition of exorbitant fees by the illegal Commission is yet another example of the rapacious nature of the regime which has consistently demonstrated its contempt for ordinary citizens throughout its 25 years of misrule.

Makwawarara and her boss, Chombo, are playing deadly games with our lives. One day they will be held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

Mbare Musika was closed after fears of cholera outbreak that had hit the southern parts of Harare and Mashonaland West. More than twenty people died as a direct result of the spate. Many families who make living from a living from selling were affected by the sudden closure.

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