Zimbabwe News Online: Fake coke and fanta drinks selling at Gweru bus terminus

Fake coke and fanta drinks selling at Gweru bus terminus
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Chronicle on 09 September, 2010 12:16:00
 
The unsuspecting members of the public and long distance commuters are made to
buy the fake 500ml cokes and fanta for US$1 each.
A Chronicle news crew visited the terminus yesterday and witnessed some vendors
busy preparing the fake soft drinks before selling them to unsuspecting
customers through windows of long distance buses.
“The fake soft drinks are brewed using a little of the genuine soft drink
which they add water mixed with the jolly juice. The preparation of these soft
drinks is so fast that some are even mixed within the terminus,” said an
ice-cream vendor who operates at the terminus. Some of the vendors at the
terminus yesterday admitted that they were selling fake soft drinks prepared
using jolly juice.
“Town inoda kungwara murume sezvauri kutoona izvi. Anotengwa zvikuru madrinks
aurikuona aya, especially nevanhu vanenge varimumabhazi. (We are in town to make
money and this is the reality of things you are witnessing. The soft drinks are
selling fast especially among those on board long distance buses),” said one
vendor at the terminus. The vendors told this reporter, who was posing as a
potential supplier of empty soft drink plastic containers that they either buy
or pick the plastic containers they use on the streets.
“We at times pick up the empty plastic containers around this terminus but
usually we buy them from street kids who sell them at $1 for 20 empty
bottles,” said another vendor.
Some travellers who fell prey to the vendors’ tricks phoned Chronicle’s
Gweru offices to express their dismay. They said the vendors should be arrested
as the fake soft drinks posed a health hazard.
“What these vendors are doing is not only unfair on the part of the
unsuspecting buyers but dangerous. This can be a serious health hazard to us
travellers. These drinks are made under very unhygienic circumstances and at
times they just pick up the empty bottles on the streets without first cleaning
them. This can be highly dangerous to our health,” said Mrs Rosemary Nyathi
who was on her way to Bulawayo. Mrs Nyathi said the vendors were at times
producing fake Cascade drinks.