Mereki Shut Down

The Harare City Council has shut down Mereki, citing control of the typhoid outbreak in the city, Newsday reports.

The awful thing, we think is that suddenly you have loads of people overnight going out of business. It is estimated that 300 people make a living from the Warren Park spot.

There is much made of the fact that there are no ablution facilities there but wouldn’t it make more sense for the council to build them? Also, it makes little sense that it is the only open-air place that has been shut down. Whitehouse and Pahuku to our knowledge have not been raided. Do they have a higher standard than Mereki? At a time when people are trying to work hard to make two ends meet, the solutions need to be holistic.

Mind you, it is easy to see that the Council itself has created this situation. They could have been sending health inspectors to make sure that standards are maintained.