Shops and businesses targeted in government clean-up exercise

By Tichaona Sibanda
26 January 2007

Over a hundred shops and businesses in Harare have been closed down by the city council’s health department in an exercise authorities say is intended to clampdown on businesses operating illegally.

But the indiscriminate way council has carried out the exercise has left genuine shops and businesses reeling from the shutdown as billions of dollars worth of business has been lost in the last two weeks. The shops and businesses closed include flea markets, salons, fast food outlets and beauty parlours.

Acting director of health services Dr Prosper Chonzi told the Herald on Thursday that the closure of the shops and businesses was to rid the city of ‘unscrupulous’ business people who are operating without licences.

Our correspondent in Harare Simon Muchemwa said many of those caught up in the exercise were properly registered but fell foul of the law because they were located in the same buildings as the businesses that were being targeted by the council.

‘The problem with this exercise is that instead of shutting down the businesses that were operating without licences, the council would rather close down the whole building instead of the affected floors and this created problems for most businesses,’ Muchemwa said.

Living with the highest inflation in the world Zimbabweans face a daily battle to exist. Analysts say this closure of so many small businesses is reminiscent of Operation Murambatsvina. Once again government shows little interest in the hardships it’s citizens face.