Zanu PF to blame for vendor crisis: Manyenyeni
By Blessings Mashaya
President Robert Mugabe’s government is to blame for the influx of vendors in Harare’s central business district (CBD), mayor Bernard Manyenyeni said.
He said the crisis is a result of Zanu PF’s failure to manage the economy.
Speaking to journalists recently, Manyenyeni said Harare City Council could not disperse vendors from the CBD, as multitudes have been forced into vending due to the current economic woes.
“They need to feed their families. The only option left for them is stealing or being a vendor. Even after the 100 day-plan the vendors will remain.
“You must know that we don’t operate in a vacuum. We operate in an economy. Also the problem of garbage must not be blamed on council only, people must learn to throw their rubbish in bins.”
Since Zanu PF controversially retained power in 2013, the country has been on a downward spiral, with the economy bleeding hundreds of thousands of badly-needed jobs and social service delivery hitting an all-time low.
On the other hand, Mugabe has failed to fulfil his 2013 election promise to create 2,2 million new jobs.
Instead, following the 92-year-old leader’s victory, thousands of companies have buckled under economic pressure.
Economic experts say the hardships afflicting Zimbabwe have reduced the country to a nation of vendors.
In most streets in the urban centres, scores of young men and women roam around selling an assortment of products, including cell phone recharge cards, vegetables, clothes, traditional herbs and skin lightening creams.
This has seen virtually all urban streets littered with card board boxes, and making them dirty and difficult to navigate during peak hours — a huge contrast from their squeaky clean image of two decades ago.
And instead of attending to the country’s worsening political and socio-economic crises, Zanu PF bigwigs are embroiled in their party’s mindless bloodletting, in which a faction loyal to embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is engaged in deadly factional and succession wars with a group opposed to him succeeding Mugabe. Daily News
