Declare unemployment crisis a national disaster – Tsvangirai

via Declare unemployment crisis a national disaster- Tsvangirai – The Zimbabwean 8 March 2015

The unemployment disaster countrywide has reached an alarming level and there is now an urgent need for the government to declare the scourge a national disaster so that the state can make formal intervention measures, says Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC-T leader.

Speaking to The Zimbabwean recently after a brief walk in the city during a tour where huge crowds comprising of mostly youths, Tsvangirai expressed shock on why there could have been in the streets instead of workplaces considering that it was during working hours. Independent economists put the unemployment rate in the country at over 80 percent despite government’s position of 11 percent based on controversial statics of the latest census.

“I have toured other places before especially cities where traditionally people would come from the rural areas to seek jobs. I always knew that there are no longer adequate jobs but the situation in Gweru shocked me because it seems the situation is worse.

“It therefore makes me feel safe and motivated to say government should now declare unemployment a national disaster. The crisis has now reached an alarming level as to require government to admit and declare it a national disaster,” said Tsvangirai.

Accompanied by MDC-T’s National Executive Council members, local MPs and other party officials, he had earlier visited the central business district of the city and witnessed rising numbers of people who are into street-vending. During his tour, he also visited factory shells under construction in Mambo, Ascot and Mkoba suburbs where council is trying to build structures for self-help projects like carpentry, tailoring and metal works among others. The former PM also toured Mtapa community blocks where council has been building ablution facilities and additional housing structures to ease the burden of hordes of former civil servants who were settled in the facilities before independence on promises of future better accommodation.

Declaring unemployment a national disaster would mean that the government start formal interventions like exemption of unemployed people from some forms of taxations, subsidies, disbursement of modest grants among others in line with world trends. In the past government has declared national disaster status to the 1991/1992 drought spell and numerous fatal road accidents involving the death of tens of people travelling in public transport vehicles. In the drought era, government assisted the citizens with food handouts while state sponsored funerals were held in cases of the road accidents.

Tsvangirai also pointed out that the government should also admit that the formal sector has collapsed so that a state of an informal economy is regularised.

“We need to accept the situation that we have been plunged into. We now live in a fembera fembera ( guess guess) nation where everyone is guessing about the future prospects some as simple as next meals. To that regard, lets embrace living trends of an informalised economy and stop harassing vendors because that is now the state of affairs. Majority people have turned to the informal sector and so we should accept that is now the way to go,” said Tsvangirai.

In 2013, ZCTU said around 300 companies were closing every week, forcing the majority of retrenched people into the informal sector.