By Flata Kavinga
Vendors in Kwekwe have been urged to adopt the city’s corporate blue colour for their market shades as part of efforts to improve the city’s appearance and promote cleanliness.
The call was made during a meeting between the City of Kwekwe and vendors’ representatives at Kwekwe Theatre, where the local authority outlined its plans to improve the appearance of trading spaces and strengthen waste management.
Speaking after the meeting, Zimbabwe Chamber of Small to Medium Enterprises (ZCSME) Kwekwe district chairperson Alfred Mkandla said council wanted vendors to embrace the corporate colour across their workspaces.
“Council said Kwekwe is growing very fast and needs to be beautiful. They want vendors to be involved in keeping the city clean, particularly at the markets where they operate,” he said.
Mkandla said vendors had been encouraged to use blue shades, including canvas structures, plastic coverings and roofing materials, instead of the black plastic sheets commonly used at their trading sites.
He said the meeting also addressed the deteriorating condition of market infrastructure, with vendors raising concerns over damaged roofs on some of the market stalls.
Council indicated that it would assess its budget to establish how the damaged structures could be repaired.
Mkandla said vendors also proposed the construction of a partitioning wall at the commuter bus rank toilets to provide privacy for women and men using the facilities.
On waste management, he said vendors raised concerns over the limited capacity of skip bins at the rank, which they said were also being used by businesses from the surrounding commercial areas.
“The skip bins provided for vendors are being used by shops around PG Complex and Rockodox, resulting in them filling up quickly. We indicated that the bins need to be collected at least twice a day,” he said.
Mkandla said vendors had proposed that council provide an additional skip bin, arguing that the existing facilities were inadequate for the volume of waste generated at the rank.
He added that council had advised that businesses in the Musina area should use their designated refuse collection arrangements instead of disposing of waste in the vendors’ skip bins.
The meeting forms part of council’s engagement with vendors on improving the cleanliness, infrastructure and general appearance of trading areas in the city.
