via Tsvangirai raps Zanu PF plans over vendors – DailyNews Live 6 March 2015
GWERU – MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai has condemned plans to drive out vendors from the streets saying Zanu PF’s failure to turn around the economy has pushed everyone into the informal sector.
Speaking after touring various Gweru City Council projects yesterday, Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe was in a sorry state where its citizens were failing to put food on the table.
“Zanu PF has created this situation and it is sad that everyone is suffering. The issue of joblessness is appalling,” Tsvangirai said.
He said Zimbabweans were desperate to make ends meet through vending which government should not condemn.
“We cannot have an outright policy to condemn vendors. We should engage the vendors and not be in running battles with them,” the MDC leader said.
“We should have an organised way of managing vendors, who are victims of a dead economy,” Tsvangirai said.
Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko last month drew the ire of Zimbabweans when he condemned vendors, saying able-bodied people should not be engaged in such business.
Mphoko’s sentiments were also echoed by Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo who also said vendors should be driven off the streets.
Gweru City Council has not been an exception as council police play cat and mouse with vendors everyday as they seek to eke a living.
Many Zimbabweans have turned to vending following the closure of thousands of companies leading to the ballooning of already high unemployment figures.
Tsvangirai added that he sympathised with Zimbabwean youths, in particular since they bore the brunt of unemployment.
He said this after a jobless youth in Mkoba 16 petitioned the MDC leader to do something about the plight of the youth.
“I feel sorry for our youths and I urge them to stop being used by Zanu PF to perpetrate violence,” he said.
The MDC leader visited markets in Gweru’s central business district and also met vendors and street hawkers in the city.
Tsvangirai also toured the city’s projects run by the Hamutendi Kombayi-led council and commended the local authority for its sterling job.
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