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Burning what-s left
Amanda Atwood
May 24, 2005

Harare - On Wednesday, the police raided the vendor stalls, flea markets and informal traders stands across Harare. They razed entire open air markets to the ground. Thousands of people were arrested, millions of dollars of goods were confiscated. In a matter of hours, entire businesses, livelihoods, investments and futures were destroyed.

No one really knows why it happened. The rumour mill of course is active: The Chinese want to set up their own shops and don-t want the flea markets selling their goods on the street; The banks were moving towards another cash shortage and the vendors don-t bank their money so they wanted to confiscate it; The Reserve Bank needed to look like it was doing something about the foreign currency crisis so they blamed it on the informal traders; The City of Harare had to look like it was busy cleaning up so it wanted to sweep out all the vendor stalls; The government doesn-t want people to protest when Kofi Annan comes, so they-re erasing all the parts of city life that made it easier for people to hide behind and to melt into; etc.

But, as is so often the case, none of the explanations really add up. They don-t, for example, explain why the thriving vegetable market near my flat posed a threat, or to whom. They don-t explain why the basket weavers and wicker furniture makers down the road had to be 'cleaned up-.

On Thursday, there was mass confusion. You could see the vendors just sitting there near where their markets used to be. The stalls were turned over and there was debris everywhere. Boxes, crates, dust, litter, the remnants of whole lives reduced to rubble. Maybe this will be it, I thought. Maybe this will be the spark that ignites all of us from our passivity and makes us all rise up and refuse to be abused any longer. That afternoon, the Reserve Bank Governor read his latest monetary policy statement. He referred to the massive vendor clean up - "those vendors that lost their work", he said, "can go work on his farm if they want jobs." Again, I thought, is he human? Is anyone in this system really human? Does anyone really care?

But on Friday, the chances of an instant and retaliatory vendor-led revolution were fading. That afternoon, I noticed some of the roadside dealers were sweeping up the rubble and lighting fires with it. That night from my window I could hear boxes and crates being broken down and could smell the burning rubbish. The next morning, what had been a vegetable market was now some piles of ash and a few plastic crates. By Sunday, even those signs had been swept up.

We, you and me and all of us, are letting them walk all over us. We-re lying down and taking it, and, when they-ve rolled us over and spat on us we-re sweeping up the mess and burning what-s left. Some argue that the move is entirely political. It-s the State trying to pick a fight so that people will rise up and demonstrate, so that they can crack down on protests and declare a State of Emergency. Would it really matter if they did? Would things get that much worse? There isn-t any fuel to travel anyway, people are already walking to and from work, streets already feel unsafe, people already feel too cowed to protest. zanu pf already has a 2/3 majority to pass any law and Constitutional amendment they so choose. What would change under a State of Emergency? Is that even what we are really afraid of? Or is it a much more basic cowardice? How much more will we take, how much longer will we sit back?

The Informal Traders Association has issued a press statement urging government to meet with them and negotiate a more positive way forward. They are hoping to meet with ministers and government officials to get more information and an agreement that allows the vendors to return. I-m impressed with their optimism, but I-m not holding my breath. And, when those meetings fail to deliver results, they will have to find ways to step up their interventions. No doubt, this is going to be a long, slow process. Many step backwards, and if we-re lucky one or two small victories. But, at least, they are organised, they see the current situation as an opportunity to organise and engage, and they are trying to do so in a thoughtful, coordinated way. They will need many kinds of support in their efforts.

The brutal, inhuman closure of the vendor stalls is a blatant example of injustice that is calling on all of us to respond. But it is going to require that we move beyond press statements and negotiations. Maybe its time the ZCTU called for a stay away. People are having a hard enough time getting to work anyway - it probably wouldn-t be difficult to convince them to stay at home. It could be in solidarity with the vendors nation wide, and highlight some specific demands of workers, vendors, and the people of Zimbabwe as a whole.

To stay informed about the efforts of the Informal Traders Association, and to find out what more you can contribute to this struggle, contact the ZCTU on 794702,794742, 793093 or info@zctu.co.zw and ask for the Informal Traders Desk.

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