IRIN Africa | ZIMBABWE: Some are more indigenous than others

21.10.11

IRIN Africa | ZIMBABWE: Some are more indigenous than others | Zimbabwe | Conflict | Economy | Food Security | Governance | Human Rights: HARARE, 14 October 2011 (IRIN) - Stallholders at the Mupedzanhamo market on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, thought they were immune to the 2008 Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, which requires large businesses such as banks and mining companies to relinquish at least 51 percent of their shares or interests to indigenous Zimbabweans.

They were wrong. Bustling Mupedzanhamo, where shoppers can buy anything from hairpins to refrigerators, has for many years provided traders with a small income and an escape from the country’s economic woes, but recently groups of youths have descended on the market, brandishing letters they claim authorise them to eject any trader that they believe is opposed to the black empowerment programme.

Miriam Raradza, 38, a stallholder and widow living in the populous nearby suburb of Mbare, was forced out of the market last month after they accused her of belonging to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister in a coalition government formed in early 2009.