Vendors who have been 48 hours to leave the streets of Harare say they will fight back. The vendors said they were angered by the prono...
Vendors who have been 48 hours to leave the streets of
Harare say they will fight back.
The vendors said they were angered by the pronouncement by
Local Government minister July Moyo that government would use the military to
eject them from the streets and vowed to resist whatever force government would
employ.
National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe leader Sten Zvorwadza
said vendors were in the streets not by choice and would only leave the streets
if government provided them with the jobs it promised.
“The attempt by the government to deploy security forces to
fight unarmed street vendors is not only reckless, but is tantamount to
planting genocide against the needy and the poor,” Zvorwadza said.
“What government needs to understand is that they created
the so-called illegal traders and for the government to act brutally would be
unfair”.
Zvorwadza said the government was talking about turning
around the economy but was chasing the vendors from the streets when they had
been the bedrock of the economy.
He said vendors should be given a 100-day plan to work on
their future instead of being given a 48-hour ultimatum by the same people who
had created them.
“We are disturbed the government makes such an announcement
without consulting the traders who are affected,” he said. “If this government
is a military state, it is prudent for the government to make it clear so that
Zimbabweans can run away for dear life.
“The pronouncement by government to declare war on informal
traders who are sustaining this economy is not democratic,” Zvorwadza said.
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