Executive Summary
Zimbabwe continues to spiral into a crisis. The major conflict drivers being the rampant job losses across the country, demolition of houses, deepening inter and intra party conflict, the perpetual election mode as a result of by-elections and serious food deficits currently ravaging the country. The Fragile States Index of 20151 ranks Zimbabwe in the “high alert” category at number 100. Zimbabwe fared badly at most of the indices which pointed at severe poverty, economic decline, progressive deterioration of public service, violations of human rights and risein factional fights among other issues. The vendor crisis stole the limelight in the month of July. Vendors in most of the major cities such as Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru and Masvingo had been issued with notices to vacate the streets and move to designated vending sites. On the 8th of July the Harare City Council started the eviction of vendors from the streets and this was met with stiff resistance by the vendors. There was pandemonium in the city as vendors clashed with municipal police and among themselves. Most of the vendors interviewed by ZPP indicated that the new designated vending sites were not ideal for business as they were located away from their potential market.
The vendor crisis has the potential to ignite civil unrest strife as thousands of Zimbabweans are resorting to vending in light of the deteriorating economic environment. The defiance demonstrated by some vendors as they kept returning to the streets to sell their wares point to their determination to protect their only source of livelihood. According to the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET),173 462 vendors were displaced from CBD areas in the month of July and goods worth $579 239.00 were confiscated by municipal police.