Barely two weeks into the government-backed clean-up campaign, Operation Chenesa, Harare's informal traders are finding ways to outsmart municipal enforcement and return to the streets. The operation, launched on September 9, 2026, aims to remove vendors from the streets, but they are adapting quickly. Vendors are using coded whistles, WhatsApp intelligence networks, mobile stalls, and hidden stock to evade enforcement. The city deployed at least 300 municipal police officers to enforce the operation around the clock.
Despite the confidence of the state when launching Operation Chenesa, reality is proving to be a stubborn antagonist. Vendors are returning to cleared areas at night, and Mayor Jacob Mafume has conceded that the city cannot clear vendors in one day. Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe has acknowledged that people are returning to cleared areas at night. The state-owned newspaper, The Herald, has reported vendors back on First Street Mall, Robert Mugabe Road, and parts of Fourth Street.
Vendors are using ordinary whistles as an early-warning system in the streets. Different pitches signal different levels of municipal police presence and approaching danger. The whistle is part of a larger vendors' digital intelligence network, with WhatsApp groups tracking municipal police and circulating locations and movements of senior officials. This allows vendors to know when officials are approaching and take action.
When a whistle sounds or a WhatsApp warning travels, a busy trading pavement can become empty within minutes. Vendors are using temporary disappearance as a strategy, making it appear as though the area is clean when officials arrive. However, this can be misleading, as it tells little about what was happening earlier or what may happen after officials leave. The state is presenting Chenesa through the visual language of cleanliness, order, and urban beautification.
Vendors have also weaponized mobility, making it difficult for municipal police to identify and monitor them. A fixed stall is easy to identify, but a mobile trader is not. Vendors are moving to different locations, trading from car boots, or using parked vehicles as makeshift shops. This makes it a Herculean task to eliminate the mobile informal economy through Operation Chenesa.
Vendors are also protecting their stock, displaying only a small portion on the pavement while keeping the rest hidden in nearby shops, offices, or temporary storerooms. Suppliers periodically replenish small quantities as stock runs out, and vendors are learning to ensure that much of their merchandise is not exposed and stationary, making confiscation less effective.
There is also a less visible strategy that capitalizes on a porous and divided state. Vendors have informants within municipal and state security institutions, drawing on family, economic, social, and political networks that reach into the system pursuing them. This is possible because informality is not a separate world but runs through the entire fabric of Zimbabwean society.
Key points
- Vendors are using coded whistles and WhatsApp networks to evade municipal enforcement.
- Vendors are using mobility and hidden stock to outsmart officials.
- The government-backed clean-up campaign is facing challenges due to the adaptability of vendors.
