Zanu PF warlords should stop collecting money from vendors

PRESS STATEMENT – Zanu PF survives on chaos, intimidation and violence. That is the default mode of this collapsing political party.

Sithembiso Nyoni, the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises of the beleaguered and faction – ridden Zanu PF regime, recently made a startling revelation to the effect that the Harare City Council rakes in at least $36 000 daily from vendors.

In fact, the amount that vendors are paying every day runs into thousands of dollars; way more than $100 000 daily. However, the money that is paid by Harare vendors does not find its way into the official coffers of the city council.

Virtually all the money that is paid by vendors on a daily basis is diverted to personal coffers of Zanu PF warlords. This is an indisputable fact.

Much as the city authorities try to restore a semblance of order and cleanliness on the streets of the capital city, Zanu PF warlords are in the notorious habit of taking over the money paid by vendors in a scam that has made Harare operate like a fiefdom of a few politically well – connected Zanu PF chefs and some other such regime apologists.

These Zanu PF operatives have privatised the income that should be channelled to the official coffers of the municipality.

It is, thus, insincere and misleading for Sithembiso Nyoni to blame the city council authorities for failing to rehabilitate the infrastructure that is used by vendors in Harare. Sithembiso Nyoni is fully aware of the chaos and mayhem that is perpetrated by the Zanu PF warlords in Harare.

She should not be allowed to shed crocodile tears. Instead of being part of the solution, Sthembiso Nyoni is actually fast becoming part of the problem. She has to be brought to order.

The MDC is a social democratic political party that firmly believes in the crafting of economic policies that guarantee equal opportunities for all.

As such, the MDC has consistently protected the rights of vendors not only in Harare but throughout the country.

More than 85% of the residents of Harare survive within the informal sector and it is utterly unfair for Zanu PF warlords to intimidate vendors and literally force them to pay their dues directly to these warlords instead of remitting payment to the official city authorities.

Vendors are being terrorised by these Zanu PF warlords particularly at Mbare Musika, Mupedzanhamo market as well as at all city commuter omnibus termini. Market stalls are only allocated to vendors who pay their daily dues directly to these notorious and violent Zanu PF warlords.

The streets of Harare are now occupied by thousands of vendors because the Zanu PF regime has brought about a virtual collapse of the formal economic sector. Industries continue to shut down and thousands of both young and old unemployed workers have now flocked into the city centre in order to sell various wares.

This is testimony to the misgovernance and rampant corruption of the Zanu PF regime under the leadership of the very old and frail Robert Mugabe.

An MDC government will be able to stimulate both domestic and foreign investment that will ensure the re – opening and expansion of all the closed industries in Harare, Bulawayo and all the other major urban centres in Zimbabwe.

The vending problem in Harare and other urban centres will only get worse as the insensitive and renegade Zanu PF regime plans to carry out a massive and unprecedented retrenchment of thousands of civil servants within the coming months.

As long as the issue of lack of political legitimacy of the Zanu PF regime is not adequately and holistically addressed, millions of Zimbabweans will continue to be relegated to the streets as vendors and beggars.

The Zanu PF regime has totally failed to deliver on any of the numerous election promises that they made prior to the rigged July 31,2013 plebiscite and as such,the only decent and honourable thing that they should now proceed to do is to immediately step down.

Both Robert Mugabe and the Zanu PF regime that he leads are no longer fit for purpose. They are now an albatross around the necks of millions of the suffering and toiling masses of unemployed Zimbabweans. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T)