Informal traders hit back at govt crackdown

Human rights activists in Zimbabwe have condemned the police for their heavy-handed tactics in an ongoing crackdown on crime. In a campaign code-named Murambatsvina (a Shona word for "clean-up"), police officers last week arrested and detained unlicensed street-vendors, accusing them of dealing in foreign currency. Urban centres like Gweru, Bulawayo and Harare, the capital, were the hardest hit, with thousands of unregistered business owners arrested and their commodities confiscated. Public transport operators were also rounded up in the police blitz and asked to explain where they had acquired the forex to import their vehicles. A total of 9,653 people have reportedly been arrested so far, and 30 mt of sugar, 8,000 litres of diesel and 13,500 litres of petrol recovered. The government has defended the clampdown, arguing that illegal trading on the parallel market was contributing to rising crime rates in urban areas. "A lot of illegal activities were flourishing around Harare and the rest of the country, and that is what we want to eliminate," police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka told IRIN. The clampdown has elicited retaliation from some traders, who fought running battles with police. Law enforcement officers found themselves on the receiving end of a barrage of stones when the residents of Chitungwiza, a satellite town 35km from Harare, resisted attempts to demolish their informal 'tuck-shops' at the weekend. Otto Saki, a project officer with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said it was unfortunate that the police had allegedly used strong-arm tactics to tackle small-scale traders, and ZLHR had met with representatives of the street traders to help them challenge the police action in court. The leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, alleged that the clampdown on vendors was the ruling party's retribution for the opposition having maintained its control of urban areas in the 31 March parliamentary elections. "It is unfortunate that a government that claims to have been legitimately elected by the people can descend on its own citizens with such brutal force - it does not make sense to shut down the informal industry, because that is the main form of trade left in the country: the economy has been mauled," Tsvangirai told IRIN. Zimbabwe is facing its worst ever economic crisis, characterised by the flight of investors and donors, runaway inflation and shortages of fuel and foreign currency.