via Vendors will not intimidate, blackmail us: Kasukuwere – NewsDay Zimbabwe July 16, 2015
ZANU PF national commissar and Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere has hit back at vendors who have threatened to de-campaign the ruling party ahead of the 2018 elections.
BY MOSES MATENGA
He said his party did not thrive on chaos and would not be blackmailed or intimidated.
Kasukuwere said the Zanu PF government was doing all it could to ensure there was no chaos in Harare, vowing the ruling party would not accept “blackmail votes”.
“So you think our party wins because of chaos? We don’t thrive on chaos. We must not be blackmailed. You can’t allow someone to take fish from Mukuvisi [River] and start selling it to you or else they won’t vote. We don’t want that kind of blackmail,” Kasukuwere said responding to a question as to whether the party would lose sleep over the threats.
“We don’t thrive on disorder, never.”
Kasukuwere’s response came after vendors demonstrated last week threatening not to vote for Zanu PF in 2018, accusing the party of forcing them out of the central business district.
The placard-waving vendors said Zanu PF was insincere and fighting the same people who voted them into power in 2013.
They accused Zanu PF of failing to provide the 2,2 million jobs promised ahead of the 2013 elections which the party won resoundingly.
Observers were of the view that Kasukuwere’s task as both Zanu PF commissar and Local Government minister was to immediately decimate MDC-T strongholds in urban areas and ensure Zanu PF occupied the space.
Meanwhile, Kasukuwere said the informal sector was a form of empowerment.
“Let’s not undermine our people as they begin this unless you believe 40 000 Europeans will come to build our economy. It should be done in a correct way,” he said.
Asked whether he would be hard on MDC-T councillors, Kasukuwere curtly responded: “They should just work and deliver.”
Kasukuwere on Tuesday toured vending sites accompanied by deputy mayor Thomas Muzuva, chairperson of the Informal Sector Committee councillor Wilton Janjazi and several other councillors together with acting town clerk Josephine Ncube.
Municipal police have been on the warpath, allegedly beating up vendors refusing to move to designated sites.
More than 40 people have so far been arrested and charged with public violence. Some of them have been made to pay admission of guilty fines.
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