Vendors Living With Disabilities, Call for City Fathers To Be Sensitive To Their Plight

AS the local authority battles to remove vendors operating in central Harare, people living with disabilities said the designated places being allocated which are on the outskirts of the city are not conducive to their needs. They called on the City Fathers to be sensitive to their plight, listen to their grievances and come up with solutions. Most of the disabled vendors said they went into informal trading because they were no longer accessing their $20-per-household social welfare fund, or any assistance from government. Speaking to NewZimbabwe.com, disabled vendors said their current working environment was bad as they crawl while some said they walked on bare feet into filthy public toilets. “We are even struggling to register with the city council, and it will become more difficult for us if we are pushed out of the CBD to where there are no facilities to cater for people like us,” said Mai Tinashe Chawatama. “They should leave us at places such as bus terminuses and street corners as some of us have been here for the last six years,” said one Tawanda. Farai Mukuta, regional technical advisor at HIV and AIDS Trust, said disabled people should be registered separately as they were not given prior education on the registration formalities. “We are calling on the city fathers to set aside a day for separate registration for people with disabilities because the able-bodied can run, hear, see and side line us, further disadvantaging people living with disabilities.” “That’s why we say the CBD should be allocated to people living with disabilities,” he added. However, Harare City Council communications officer Dorothy Mavolwane said disabled vendors were being registered together with all the others but the municipality was ensuring that they were allocated space in the CBD. “Although we are still compiling their numbers, as a city we are of the view that they will be allocated vending space because they are also trying to eke out an honest living,” she said. “All disabled vendors who responded to the call to register were assisted and they do not need to wait in the long queues but are registered immediately.” The National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (Nascoh) says 870 of their members are operating as street vendors in Harare. source-newzimbabwe