Demolitions of Informal Business Structures in Harare, Zimbabwe Under the Guise of COVID-19 City Clean Up

• Published in: Journal of Asian and African studies (Leiden) Vol. 57; no. 7; pp. 1446 - 1460
• Main Author: Mwonzora, Gift
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-11-2022; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Case studies; Cities; COVID-19; Discourse analysis; Governmentality; Health authorities; Informal economy; Legislation; Local government; Pandemics; Public officials; Qualitative research; Research methodology; Vendors; COVID-19; Harare City Council; cities; Informality; clean-up; local government; demolitions; Zimbabwe; ZANU-PF; vendors
• ISSN: 0021-9096; 1745-2538
• DOI: 10.1177/00219096211058878

Recent research on the informal sector has devoted considerable attention in examining how informal traders have been affected by the coronavirus in different temporal and spatial settings. However, less well understood is the extent to which central and local governments can cunningly use the veil of COVID-19 pandemic to regulate and re-shape the informal sector. Seeking to remedy this shortcoming in the prevailing accounts and utilising a qualitative research methodology including observations, discourse analysis, critical review of policy pronouncements, by-laws, legislation, video evidence from city officials, government, health authorities, vendors associations, newspapers articles and through a case study analysis of Harare City in Zimbabwe. The article contributes to the academic and policy discussions on how law, disease outbreak, policy and governmentality of African urban spaces intersect.