Vendors to help voter registration drive

By Blessings Mashaya

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. Daily News