High Court of Zimbabwe backs vendors, stifles the typhoid campaign

Lovemore Lubinda

A High Court of Zimbabwe has stopped the joint efforts by the City of Harare and the Zimbabwe Republic Police to remove vendors out from the streets in attempts to fight typhoid.

This comes after a vendors’ representative body, Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) successfully  logged an urgent application in the courts opposing the move.

The court order thwarts Health Minister, David Parirenyatwa’s initiated inter-ministerial task force to fight the outbreak of typhoid which is threatening lives of many Harare residents.

City of Harare has since mid-January been rounding vendors throughout the city.

Vendors have been singled out as the chief culprits promoting activities deemed to cause water borne diseases in the capital.

The court action by the vendors is the latest the City of Harare has had with vendors contending that they have no other alternative except to be in the streets due to lack of employment.