Illegal street vending and national security in Harare, Zimbabwe

The purpose of this article is to examine the link between political and socio-economic dynamics of illegal street vending and national security in Zimbabwe using the case of Harare. Scholarship has increasingly focused on the interface between the urban informal economy and politics in Zimbabwe. However, the nexus between illegal street vending and national security emerges as a major gulf which this article attempts to fill. Using the human security concept as its framework for analysis and relying on data collected through focus group discussions, observations and interviews with street vendors and different officials as well as content analysis, the article argues that the illegal street vending’s negative effects on human security threaten national security. On the whole, the negative effects of illegal street vending that have the potential to prompt national insecurity include lawlessness, environmental pollution and public health hazards as well as, though arguable, providing a ready recruiting ground for violent mass protests which attract the attendant police violence thus generating social unrest. The article concludes that the deterioration of human security conditions due to illegal street vending endangers national security.