Provincial reporter

The Harare Municipal Police is under fire for instigating violence on vendors and taxi drivers in Harare Central Business District (CBD).

This comes on the backdrop of videos circulating on various social media platforms where elements in the Municipal Police are spotted ruthlessly assaulting touts, a taxi driver and  a female vendor on separate occasions.

Tatenda Samuriwo, a member of the Vendors Initiative for Social Transformation confirmed, “I have seen the videos circulating in various social media platforms depicting a Harare City Council Police Officer brutally assaulting a vendor  and another where a taxi driver was being assaulted.

The municipal police in Harare has acted with impunity, resorting to brutal tactics to enforce regulations against street vendors and taxi drivers. We are struggling to make ends meet and  yet subjected to physical abuse, harassment and intimidation on a daily basis,” Samuriwo stated

Speaking to this  publication, a tout identified as Jabu Gwiza said, “Council and ZRP are always helping clear the streets, but Council has gone a notch up over the past few weeks. We have to pay the Council a fee every day in order to save ourselves from running battles.”

Weighing in on this, Elton Ziki a political analyst said, “the members of the Harare Municipal Police are indeed the former members of MDC Alliance  terror groups previously known as the Democratic Resistance Committees and the para-military Vanguard.

The group is also linked to the 14-16 January 2019  violence that occurred after the fuel hikes as well as the post-election violence of 01 August 2018. The group is  extremely violent and their agenda is to portray an image that Zimbabwe is ungovernable. There must be accountability for those responsible for perpetuating violence against civilians,” Ziki added

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, (ZHRC) on X (formerly Twitter) handle, commented saying that the acts of violence by Municipal police officers are in violation of human rights and those responsible must be brought to book through litigation.

“It is imperative that the Municipal Police re-evaluate their approach to addressing the issue of informal trading and unauthorized parking , rather than resorting to violence.”