For the second time in 10 years, the government has announced a ban on the importation and sale of second hand clothes, in a direct attack on the livelihoods of millions of citizens.
Local Government minister Daniel Garwe made the announcement last week in Harare where he also revealed that he had directed councils around the country to clampdown on vendors who operate at night.
Garwe justified his ban by saying vending – especially at night – was fuelling illegal activities, crippling formal businesses and eroding urban order.
The government first announced a ban on used clothing imports in 2015, but two years later it replaced the prohibition with punitive import duties following pressure from vendors and informal traders, who saw it as a brazen attack on their livelihoods.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, forcing the majority of working age people to resort to informal businesses with vending being the most preferred vocation.
The Zimbabwe Statistics Agency in July said its latest economic census found out that 76,1%of business establishments in the country were informal.
According to the World Bank, Zimbabwe is home to one of the world’s largest informal economies where about three quarters of all employment is informal, with the sale of second hand clothes the most common trade.
Second hand clothing imports into Zimbabwe have grown steadily since the trade liberalisation measures were introduced in 1991, fuelled by massive job losses as people resort to the trade for survival.
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Over the years there have been growing concern in the clothing sector of the continuous growth in the second-hand clothing market and illegal imports from within the Sadc region.
It is common knowledge that most of these cheap imports don’t come into the country through the formal borders and pose unfair price competition to local products due to their cheapness and perceived superior quality.
However, it is not true that the demise of Zimbabwe’s clothing sector is solely due to the influx of second hand clothes.
There are other factors such as lack of foreign currency, cost of borrowing money, brain drain, power cost and supply and heavy import duties.
It is against this background that we find the ban on the importation and sale of second hand clothes and night vending reactionary and ill thought out.
The government will do well by dealing with the root causes of these problems instead of the symptoms.
