GWERU – Police in Gweru, assisted by municipal police, raided vendors who were selling scarce hardware and grocery commodities at Kudzanai Bus Terminus on Tuesday, with most left dejected and counting their losses.

Goods that recently disappeared from supermarket shelves such as cooking oil, Mazoe, sugar, washing powder, soap, rice, fizzy drinks and cement were now readily available at the Kudzanai shanty vending stalls.

Vendors had found a safe haven at the terminus after municipal police evicted them from the city centre in August following a typhoid outbreak on the orders of then Minister of State for Midlands Province Owen Ncube.

Several truckloads of confiscated goods were driven away by municipal police who were protected by police in full anti-riot gear.

Only those selling vegetables were spared.

Several vendors were also arrested for public order offences.

Vendors who spoke to ZimLive said most of the confiscated goods were imported from South Africa and some from Zambia after the scrapping of import restrictions on basic commodities under Statutory Instrument 122 of 2017.

One of the victims and vendors’ representative Lovemore “Dingaka” Reketayi watched his products worth more than $5,000 being taken away.

“These things that they are taking I bought them myself from Musina, I did not steal them. Now how do we survive when they are doing this to us, what do they want us to do? They chased us from the streets and now they follow us here,” said Reketayi.

Closed for business … Street hawkers in discussions with the police after cement and other items were seized in unexpected raids

Titswalo Mjono said the traders had been caught by surprise.

“They took everything, except for those selling vegetables which they were licensed to sell,” she said.

The terminus had become a hyper supermarket where all the scarce commodities in city shops could be found at inflated prices.

Some of the suppliers of the commodities are said to be shop workers who were withholding the commodities once supplied so they could resale them on the black market for higher returns.