DON’T JUST CHASE THE VENDOR, BUILD THE VENDOR!

Harare’s Vendors Under Pressure as Jerry More Nyazungu Says: “DON’T JUST CHASE THEM—BUILD THEM”

Guest Contributor: Jerry More Nyazungu  
  Perspective: From Pavement to Captain of Industry  
  Updated: September 3, 2026

THE BIG STORY: As thousands of informal traders in Harare face a government-imposed September 9 deadline to vacate undesignated sites, businessman Jerry More Nyazungu has issued a passionate appeal. Drawing on his own history as a street vendor, Nyazungu argues that the current "Chase and Confiscate" model is an outdated failure that ignores the human faces behind Zimbabwe's informal economy.

Many years ago, I was a street vendor at the corner of Patrenda and Willowvale. Being chased and sometimes arrested was almost part of the business model. You would arrange your products, start talking to customers and suddenly someone would shout, “MAPURISA!”

SMALL BEGINNINGS: Behind the woman selling tomatoes is school fees; behind the man selling accessories is rent. Jerry More Nyazungu and other local leaders are calling for a strategy shift from persecution to development.

Business strategy immediately changed. No SWOT analysis. No board meeting. No strategic retreat. Just RUN! Twenty years later, I am a businessman, but I haven't forgotten that young vendor who once had to look over his shoulder while trying to make an honest living.

The Experience Survival Reality The Strategy The Verdict

"Go To School": The Education Paradox

Jerry More Nyazungu reflects on the advice given to him by a police officer decades ago and how it applies to today's economic climate.

"I still remember being at Budiriro Police Station and asking the Chief Inspector why they kept arresting vendors. His answer has stayed with me for years: 'Go to school.'"

The Escape Route That Failed The message was simple: education was supposed to be the escape route. Go to school, get educated, get a job, and leave the streets. But what do we tell the person who went to school but is vending because there is no job? Go back to school again?

This is where the story stops being funny. The streets are now filled with graduates who have degrees but no employment, forced to return to the very pavements they were told to escape.

Behind Every Small Table is a Family

Understanding that the informal sector is not a "problem to be removed," but the lifeblood of Zimbabwean survival.

Nyazungu emphasizes that vendors are not outside our economy—they ARE our economy. The September 9 deadline ignores the immediate needs of families who depend on daily sales.

Rent and Basic Needs Behind the man selling phone accessories may be rent. Behind that small table on the pavement may be a whole family waiting for supper.

The School Fees Engine Behind that woman selling tomatoes may be school fees. Many families in Zimbabwe depend on vending for survival, and removing them without a plan is removing their future.

"We need to stop seeing the vendor only as a problem to be removed and start seeing the vendor as a potential business to be developed."

SMALL BEGINNINGS: Behind the woman selling tomatoes is school fees; behind the man selling accessories is rent. Jerry More Nyazungu and other local leaders are calling for a strategy shift from persecution to development.

The 7-Step Transformation Pathway

Nyazungu proposes a sophisticated alternative to the "Chase and Arrest" cycle. Here is how we build the vendor from the pavement to the fiscus.

Step 1: REGISTER Instead of arrests, we need simple, dignified registration. Capture who is trading and where. Transform them from "illegal entities" into recognized participants of the city's commercial ecosystem.

Step 2: ORGANISE Dignified, designated spaces are the answer. Order doesn't come from a chase; it comes from providing affordable, regulated zones with health standards, sanitation, and pedestrian access.

Step 3: TRAIN The street hustle is raw entrepreneurship. Let's polish it. Teach them bookkeeping, customer service, stock management, and digital marketing. Turn a "hustler" into a "manager."

Step 4: FINANCE Arresting a vendor takes money out of the economy via fines. Financing a vendor puts money in. We need micro-finance pathways tailored for the informal sector to scale up their inventory.

Step 5: FORMALISE Create simple incentives for vendors to register as legal business entities. Lower the barriers to entry so that formalization feels like a promotion, not a punishment.

Step 6: TAX The government needs revenue. When a vendor is organized and growing, they can eventually contribute to the fiscus. Tax the growth of tomorrow, don't just fine the survival of today.

Step 7: GROW The final goal is a pathway from street vendor to micro-business, to SME, to employer. Many successful Zimbabwean entrepreneurs started from car boots and pavement tables.

JERRY MORE NYAZUNGU VERDICT

Never Despise Small Beginnings

There is something painfully ironic about celebrating entrepreneurs after they succeed, while persecuting them when they are still small. Twenty years later we invite them to conferences and call them CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY. Twenty years earlier it was: “MAPURISA! RUN!”

The person we are chasing from the pavement today could be building one of Zimbabwe's important businesses tomorrow. I still remember that corner. I still remember being arrested. I went to school, but the streets educated me too.

DON'T JUST CHASE THE VENDOR. BUILD THE VENDOR!!

© Mhepo News | Editorial Desk | Contributor: Jerry More Nyazungu

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