The study sought to examine how street vendors were coping with informality and illegality in
metropolitan Harare. Data collection techniques included in-depth personal interviews, direct
observations and documentary reviews. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect socioeconomic
and technical data pertaining to street vending and the resistance strategies adopted by
the vendors. The study showed that despite numerous constraints placed on various groups of
street traders, these groups had actually developed survival and resistance strategies that enabled
them to maintain their livelihoods from public urban space. These strategies included “soft” forms
of resistance; small-scale individual and group actions; subtle and innovative arrangements and
even open protest and direct confrontation with the authorities. This was because for many street
vendors, the street provided them with an honourable and respectable means of livelihoods. The
study recommended that the government should recognise street industry through registration and
introduction of a code of practice for street vendors. Over time a legal instrument should be
introduced to regulate the operations of street traders. However, as a first step towards
recognition, street vendors should constitute themselves into well organised associations that could
become a forum of negotiations with the City of Harare. Future research should focus on
quantifying the number of street vendors in Harare and their economic benefits