Vendors selling second-hand clothing are back in business in the Central Business District in violation of health measures set to curb the spreading of COVID-19.
The vendors sell mainly winter clothes from parked vehicles without registration plates.
The trade in second-hand winter clothes is also rife in high-density suburbs where the vendors trade by the roadside and in parked commuter omnibuses.
A vendor who spoke to H-Metro said they were selling stock they bought before the country was put on lockdown in March. Said the vendor:
We are aware that second-hand clothes have been banned due to Covid-19 but we had already stocked these before the national lockdown.
I used to have a place at Mupedzanhamo Market so its opening is taking longer and we are starving.
Our business mainly depends on second-hand clothes from Mozambique and if Covid-19 measures are to be taken seriously Forbes and Nyamapanda Border Posts must tightly be monitored.
We are appealing to security agencies to deal with corruption at both border posts and quarantine centres where people are reported to be escaping and as well as skipping borders.