INFORMAL traders have defied President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s lockdown regulations and are now back in full force, operating openly in the high-density areas at a time the country is recording a surge in coronavirus cases.

Government recently partly eased a one-and-half-month-long COVID-19 lockdown to “restart certain sectors of the economy,” but kept the informal sector under lockdown.

Government had promised $200 to the vulnerable, including those in the informal sector, to cushion them from the effects of the national lockdown which has gone for over two months.

The COVID-19 outbreak might get out of control following the relaxing of lockdown measures, which has seen large-scale movement of people in and around Harare.

Meanwhile, Bulawayo City Council said it will descend on illegal vendors who are causing congestion in the central business district in violation of the COVID-19 lockdown order

Mayor Solomon Mguni made the remarks early this week while receiving 20 beds and personal protective equipment from Ezra Sibanda and Friends Initiative on behalf of the Thorngrove Isolation Centre.