Remember Deketeke-Municipal Correspondent
GOVERNMENT’s Operation Chenesa has recorded significant progress in restoring order and cleanliness across the country, with a cumulative 35 365 illegal businesses and activities having been impacted since the start of the nationwide programme.
Addressing a Press Conference in Harare yesterday, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe said the focus was now shifting from ending unlawful activity and providing the necessary infrastructure for legal markets.
Latest figures show that 16 529 illegal structures have been dismantled and removed from unauthorised areas, while 1 446 arrests were made as authorities intensify enforcement of local authority by-laws.
The operation has generated US$118 553 and R1 000 in fines collected from non-compliant operators, reflecting the scale of enforcement activities being undertaken across the country’s 92 local authorities.
The figures, Minister Garwe added, point to the expanding reach of Operation Chenesa, which Government says is focused on addressing illegal trading activities, unauthorised structures and other forms of urban disorder.
The operation has been extended to tackling the circulation of illicit substances, with municipal police seizing hundreds of cartons of illegal drugs and substances, as well as large quantities of prescription-only medicines, including steroids.
Minister Garwe said the clean-up programme had been largely successful, with Government now shifting greater attention towards providing proper trading infrastructure for informal traders. “Whilst the clean-up operation has been largely successful, focus is now on the provision of vending sites in all the 2 500 wards countrywide,” he said.
Existing dilapidated markets would be renovated as a matter of urgency to ensure vendors operate from properly designated and hygienic trading spaces.
All local authorities had been directed to establish designated vending zones equipped with adequate water supplies and sanitary facilities.
Operation Chenesa is being implemented across all 92 local authorities through the enforcement of existing laws governing urban planning, public health and municipal administration.
Government maintains that the programme is not intended to demolish people’s homes, but to eliminate disorder and create properly regulated business spaces. “The modernisation of our cities is an absolute, irreversible Ministry mandate, as that speaks to the attainment of an upper middle-income economy by 2030,” said Minister Garwe.
The regularisation of urban spaces would improve sanitation, protect infrastructure, attract legitimate investment and create a conducive environment for businesses. The Minister said enforcement would continue while local authorities accelerate the establishment and rehabilitation of vending facilities to sustain the gains recorded under the programme.
Source: Blitz restores order, cleanliness across cities: Garwe – herald
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