Plate 9.5: Gas Welders Working along Madzindadzi Road
8.3 Geo−Political Data
This section offers a thorough summary of geo−political data on informal trading in Zimbabwe. It situates sampling windows (Gazaland, Siyaso and the Complex) in Harare province. This is essential in providing room for scalability of the database. The same data on
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informal manufacturing can be gathered from other districts in Harare and other provinces in Zimbabwe, thereby generating a national informal trading sector database. The database model is structured to capture four spatial entities; provinces in Zimbabwe, districts and wards in Harare, and sampling windows surveyed. Concerning geo−political data, qualities like names and geo−reference (polygon shape) can be made use of in accessing data from the data model.
An interactive map of Zimbabwe showing several things on one map was adapted from https://zimgeospatial.github.io/ and contextualised to the current study using open street maps.
In this chapter, the interactive map will be shown on separate maps for attractive visual displays. Sections 8.3.1 to 8.3.4 outline the provinces in Zimbabwe, districts in Zimbabwe, Harare province, and study sites respectively.
8.3.1 Provinces in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is split into ten (10) provinces namely Harare, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Manicaland, Matebeleland North, Matebeleland South, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Midlands provinces. Of these ten provinces, Harare and Bulawayo are the first and second largest cities in Zimbabwe respectively. Harare in its capacity as the capital city of Zimbabwe attracts huge volumes of activity (both formal and informal). The ten provinces are recorded in the data model to capture key characteristics like place code and province name.
The first entity (table) recorded in the database gives two fields and their conforming descriptions as displayed in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1: Provinces in Zimbabwe (Researcher’s Analysis, 2018)
Field Name Description
Provincepc P−Code for the province. (Place Code)
Province The name of the province
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As displayed in Table 8.1, provinces can be recognised by names or place code. Any request to see the provinces in Zimbabwe will provide the map in Figure 8.1. This map, and all other maps in the data model, can be zoomed in and out for an improved view.
Figure 8.1: Provinces in Zimbabwe (https://zimgeospatial.github.io/)
As indicated in Figure 8.1, Harare is both a province and a city. On the map, spatial area of research is highlighted in red whereas other provinces are displayed in blue. Interestingly, with regards to spatial extent, Harare and Bulawayo provinces are the smallest relative to others, yet Harare attracts large volumes of activity.
8.3.2 Districts in Zimbabwe
In the data model, if a user is searching for information on districts in Zimbabwe only, one can click the districts layer and the resultant map of such an inquiry is shown in Figure 8.2.
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Boundaries of the districts in Zimbabwe are shown as polygon features.
Figure 8.2: Districts in Zimbabwe (https://zimgeospatial.github.io/)
As indicated in Figure 8.2, Bulawayo and Harare serve as cities, provinces and districts in Zimbabwe. The entity of districts is structured to give district place code, name of district, name of local authority in charge of the district in question, the sort of authority (for example Rural District Council, Urban Council, Municipality, and so on), province place code. The summary of district entity is as shown below;
####Field Definitions: | Field Name | Explanation | | --- |---| | districtpc | P-Code for the district. (Place Code) | | district | The name of the district | |
local_authority | The name of the local authority | | districtyp | The type of the local authority | | provincepc | P-Code for the province. (Place Code) |
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This section gives data on wards in Harare. It is critical to note, the database provides data for all wards in Zimbabwe, but for the intent of this presentation, only wards in Harare are highlighted in Figure 8.3.
Figure 8.3: Wards in Harare (https://zimgeospatial.github.io/)
Figure 8.3 shows all wards in Harare province. Captured in the data model are ward place codes, ward name, district name, alternative district name, province name, district place code, province place code, and changes made to ward limitations in year 2008. Data describing the ward entity is summed up as follows;
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####Field Definitions: | Field Name | Explanation | | --- | --- | | wardpc | P-Code for the ward. (Place Code) | | wardname | The name of the ward which is actually a number. | | province | The name of the province | | district | The type of the district | | alt_name | Alternative district name. | | districtpc | P-Code for the district. (Place Code) | | provincepc | P-Code for the province. (Place Code) | | integrity | Changes made to the ward boundary as in year 2008|
8.3.4 Location of Study Sites
This sub-section gives the actual location of Siyaso, Gazaland and the Complex in Harare province. Their boundaries are shown as polygons. An investigation into the spatial location of these sites gives the map in Figure 8.4.
Figure 8.4: Sampling Windows Studied (Adapted from https://zimgeospatial.github.io/)
The three study sites are shown by polygons bounded is and shaded in blue. The interactive map provides for zooming in and out and the resultant maps of the three sites under study are indicated in various Figures in this research (Figures 3.4, 5.7, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6 and 8.7).
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