The ManicaPost
Ngoni Dapira Business Correspondent
CAR boot sales are on the increase in Mutare as clothing traders in boutiques seek alternatives to escape the high-rental charges on most of the up-market buildings. With most industries and companies folding up or going under judicial management, the Small to Medium Enterprises have become the economic drivers and major employers.
However, entrepreneurs especially those in the clothing sector have of late been caught in a Catch-22 and now resort to car-boot sales as a viable option to evade the high rental charges and high traders license fee.
Trader’s license fee is $500 per year, while rentals for most boutiques in the Central Business District are averaging between $1 000 and $1 500, of which boutique owners said it was now unprofitable given that almost everyone is selling clothes informally to make ends meet.
At Sakubva Flea Market and several car parking lots in the CBD, car-boot sales have become popular.
The traders choose specific times when they expect customers to come, while some even visit institutions like the Mutare Provincial Hospital and park their cars during lunch hours, especially when they have received their salaries.
A survey around the CBD in Mutare showed that several up-market boutiques were closing shop the most recent being Impressions Boutique at Bhadella Arcade.
Impressions Boutique had been operating for the past 10 years. Most people are now sharing the shop space to be able to pay rentals, especially with the EcoCash agents who are now sprouted in several shops in the city.
Manicaland Chamber of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises secretary, Mr Isee Zihwi said the situation in the country needs realism.
“We need realism in order to turn around our economy. As MSMEs, we want to support the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Empowerment, but there has to be consensus on certain critical issues between Government and business.
“Government expects MSMEs to formalize, but the situation on the ground is not conducive; from the high license fees for traders to high corporate tax. The operating environment is just not stable.
“There is need for serious engagement for the formalization process to be a success.
“As for the increase in car-boot traders, it is the business environment. People always respond to make ends meet, so we need to address the main problems to formalize and restore sanity in business,” said Mr Zihwa.
A vendor at the Meikles Park Flea Market who requested anonymity said sales were low and were getting worse by the day.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce national president Mr Hlanganiso Matangaidze is on record imploring Government to implement five years tax reliefs to cushion SMEs and allow them to grow in the formalisation transition.
This comes in the wake of revelations by the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operatives Development, Cde Sithembiso Nyoni, who revealed that more than $7,4 billion was circulating in the informal sector, but the money is not benefiting fiscus.
Car boot sales are popular in the United Kingdom as a form of market where private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods, usually second hand.
If the car boot sales continue to increase there will definitely be a need to quarantine them and give them space to operate like in the UK.
