Source: Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET)
Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) and Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) in collaboration with Chitungwiza Residents Trust (CHITREST) and the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) convened a Community Engagement Meeting at Chigovanyika Shopping Complex in Chitungwiza with the vendors and the Chitungwiza residents on the 22nd of February 2017. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a collaborative Typhoid response strategy between the vendors and the residents following the outbreak of Typhoid in Harare which has so far claimed two lives and is suspected to have infected thousands of people. The strategy will be shared with the relevant stakeholders at the CSOs Indaba in the coming weeks.
The meeting was attended by approximately 200 participants. The acknowledged the need for government to take measures to arrest the further spread of Typhoid, but stated that such measures have to accord due respect for the rights of thousands of vendors, which it has not been the case in Harare, where government issued a wholesale ban on all vending activities in the CBD, flagrantly violating hordes of vendors’ constitutional right to a livelihood. The entirety of VISET membership and the generality of the vending community said they are committed to working in clean environs and have taken steps thereof, including cleaning their workspaces and providing litter bins, making it irrational for government to blame the outbreak of typhoid on vending.
The residents stressed that the outbreak of typhoid is a result of failure by the government to provide water, sanitation and hygiene services to the citizens, regardless of the fact that most of them have been religiously paying their rates to their respective Councils. They also bemoaned the unfortunate fact that Zimbabwe is still grappling with such an archaic disease as typhoid, in this day and era. Had government learnt from previous outbreaks in 2008 and 2010, typhoid could easily have been prevented. They blamed the government for using vendors as scapegoats for its failure to provide service delivery and the consequences thereof. ZADHR stressed that while it is important for vendors to exercise hygiene at all times, government has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the citizens right to health and such entails providing clean water, collecting garbage, and availing functional ablution facilities at vendors’ work-spaces.
Source: Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET)