Shop operators boycotting paying rates in protest over vendors

Acting town clerk Josephine Ncube told councillors of the informal sector committee that shops in Harare’s CBD are boycotting paying rates in protest over vendors who they claim are eating into their profits while they also littering their shop fronts.

Said Ncube:

The mayor and senior council officials undertook a tour of the city and observed that most pedestrian pavements and frontage of shops were occupied by illegal vendors. The vendors had moved away from the designated sites and revenue collection had decreased. The situation has deteriorated so much that shop owners are now boycotting payment of rates as a result.

She recommended that vendors at undesignated selling points must be moved and advised social development director Edmore Nhekairo to come up with a plan on how to handle the vendor crisis within two weeks. Mabvuku councillor Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi said the shop owners were justified in boycotting paying rates.

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