The capital
are making a living out of hoarding local goods, repackaging them at a less weight and stamping fake expiry dates on them.
Norest Chibikwu (mukoma Nodza) who sells his products along Mbuya Nehanda Street, admitted as much.
“We go to factories to buy our goods in bulk and then repackage them for the reselling. . .
“We have many suppliers of containers and stickers exactly the same as those of companies and we have the expiry date printers which can easily change or shift the date to suit us,” he said.
Strictly cash The language that is understood by night grocers and their customers is cash.
Every transaction is strictly in cash, and plastic money does not cut it.
Mukoma Nodza added: “Plastic money would kill our businesses as our suppliers are totally rejecting it given the amount of time taken to do a transaction. With cash, you are given some big discounts prompting us to get extra goods than we bought.
“Yes, we get bond notes time and again and we want it but we have seen some US$20, US$50 and US$100 notes here and we are using them.”
But the more such informal businesses grow, the more the taxman’s job becomes difficult.
In a way, the success of informal traders represents their success rate in avoiding tax obligations that naturally sustain the national purse.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) is still struggling to bring informal businesses under their influence, with the result that tax avoidance and tax evasion is rampant.
Faced with a shrinking tax base, Zimra has unfortunately had to react in the worst way possible – wringing out more taxes from already compliant businesses.
It is conundrum. One that is proving difficult to solve.
It seems for as long as there is night and day, vendors will continue to rule the night.