Cross-border traders appeal for land

THE Zimbabwe Cross-Border Traders Association (ZCBTA) has expressed frustration over failure by local authorities to avail adequate land for informal traders to operate from saying this was crippling the sector’s viability and growth.

Speaking during a meeting with representatives from South African manufacturers at a Bulawayo lodge on Friday, ZCBTA president, Mr Killer Zivhu, said their members have the capacity and resources to build their own trading stalls but were being let down by councils.

He appealed to the Government to intervene in ensuring that councils avail land for traders.

Mr Killer Zivhu
“I stand before you tonight with an appeal. May you please approach (First Lady) Amai Mnangagwa on our behalf and beg her to reach out to city councils and local authorities so that they avail land to us, we just want land, nothing else,” he said in a message directed to Bulawayo Provinial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Judith Ncube, who was guest of honour.

“We are able to build our own stalls as we have the means and capacity. I know the First Lady is a listening and understanding mother, kindly ask her to come to our aid. We are a big sector that contributes to the economic prosperity of our great nation.” Zimbabwe Cross-Border Traders Association
Mr Zivhu said cross-border traders were committed to assisting the Government to fight against unjustified price increases, which were affecting ordinary Zimbabweans, hence the engagement with the South Africans.

“This country was birthed through a protracted and bitter armed struggle. We were resolute then and we are still resolute today in our fight against price increases. We will force a stop to this and are confident victory will be achieved. Prices must and shall fall,” he said.

The association had organised the meeting with the South African manufacturers to deliberate on how local traders could better access commodities directly from the manufactures instead of going through middlemen who would have added mark-ups to the goods.

The arrangement comes three weeks after the Government scrapped import duty, for at least six months, on basic commodities to counter rampant and unjustified price increases of locally produced goods.
Cde Jabulani Sibanda

Members of the association from the 92 administrative centres throughout the country attended the event.

These were joined by Zanu-PF provincial chairman, Jabulani Sibanda, as well as representatives of three local banks.

Ms Kajal Panday, Mr Ebrahim Kara, Mr Nicola Motau and Mr Gift Satekge represented the South African manufactures delegation.

In her keynote address, Minister Ncube said cross border trading was a viable economic activity that many Zimbabweans depend upon for survival.

She said the meeting could not have come at a better time when the Government had just scrapped import duty on basic commodities which is meant to counter the unfair and unjustified price increases which negatively affected the generality of citizens.

“I overheard some people discussing that once the Government increases civil servants’ salaries they were going to increase prices, so who is fighting the civil servants, is it the Government or our businesses?

“Are we part of that regime? I certainly know that cross-border traders are not in that bracket, you are for the people. As we may be aware Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) play a significant role as the engine of economic growth, development and employment creation not only in Bulawayo but in our country as a whole, which is critical to the attainment of Vision 2030,” said Minister Ncube.

She said Government recognises and appreciates the contribution of SMEs to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) hence a number of programmes are being put in place in the transformation of the SMEs sector from informal to formal as alluded to by the association president.

Meanwhile, a warehouse will be opened in Musina within the next three weeks and will be accessible to members of the ZCBTA.

Addressing the meeting, Ms Panday said they were committed to helping the Government to fight against the price madness.

“We have the goods that you want, all you need to do is just to tell us the specific commodities that you require and we will deliver at affordable prices. We are setting up a warehouse at Musina which will make it easier for you instead of going all the way to Johannesburg,” said Ms Panday.-The Chronicle