Source: Vendors to help voter registration drive – DailyNews Live
Blessings Mashaya 27 July 2017
HARARE – Supported by hundreds of vendors, the non-partisan National
Vendors Union Zimbabwe (Navuz) plans to register multitudes of new voters
via street teams to be deployed countrywide ahead of next year’s crunch
elections.
The organisation announced its plans yesterday, building on its success in
signing up thousands of informal traders.
Vending in Zimbabwe has become common as a result of the deepening
economic crisis reflected in a high unemployment rate. According to the
International Labour Organisation, 95 percent of Zimbabweans are
informally employed.
“The vendor vote is critical in winning the elections next year,” Navuz
chairperson Sten Zvorwadza told the Daily News.
“We don’t want to be left out as you know that vendors have suffered a
lot, so this is a good opportunity to map our future. We are going to
travel around the country mobilising our members to register to vote.
“We are willing to participate in the processes, initiative that shapes
our future and our lives.”
Zvorwadza said the current government does not care about their plight as
vendors.
“Our economy has collapsed because of failing policies that are not
conducive for investment and growth. We find ourselves at the mercy of
cash crisis which has already locked us out of our own hard earned cash
and has made business a nightmare to conduct.
“Government has shown a complete disregard for citizens’ socio-economic
rights and also its indifference to the plight of poverty stricken
Zimbabweans,” he said.
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