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OpenTackling Unemployment Must Come Before Crackdown On Vendors, Says Mahere
Former opposition MP Fadzayi Mahere has called on the government to address the root causes of the country’s economic struggles, arguing that once the fundamentals are fixed, citizens will have access to dignified employment opportunities and will no longer be forced into vending.
Mahere’s comments came in response to a 48-hour deadline issued by the government on Wednesday, demanding local authorities clear illegal vendors, particularly night traders, from undesignated areas in cities and towns across the country.
She argued that no one enjoys vending, but people are pushed onto the streets to engage in hawking because they have no other choice, given the severe unemployment crisis in the country. Said Mahere:
In the 80s, you didn’t have vendors on every street corner and in every road of Zimbabwe’s cities because the economy worked.
One could get an education or skills then get employment or become an entrepreneur. Zimbabwe had a functional currency.
We did not have 49% extreme poverty. The country was not bleeding US$2,2 billion annually to corruption and illicit financial flows.
We had an extremely productive agricultural sector, a robust manufacturing sector and a decent service industry.
None of that is true today.
The former Mt Pleasant MP believes that every Zimbabwean desires dignity and that Zimbabweans are inherently hardworking and resilient.
However, she argues that they have been deprived of an environment that enables the average person to earn a decent living. Added Mahere:
Nobody wants to wake up everyday and be a vendor nor does anybody want to spend the night buying and selling to survive.
But what option do the masses have when they’ve been forced into this desperate position by a predatory, corrupt, incompetent, looting elite?
I can assure you that if the Govt fixes the fundamentals in our economy and people have opportunities and a dignified way to make a living, the vending crisis will take care of itself.
You cannot forcibly drive vendors off the street when you pushed them there with your incompetence, insatiable greed and destruction of the economy and the country.
Mahere said government officials who issued the directive to remove vendors from the streets are out of touch with reality, as they are insulated from the economic hardships faced by ordinary Zimbabweans. She said:
The detached political elites cannot even see the irony in chasing people off the street from the safety of their air-conditioned offices, big cars and lavish lifestyles that are the direct result of looting the very resources that should have been ploughed into the economy so that people aren’t forced into the pain and indignity of vending. Where is the empathy or accountability for the mess they created?
This is the most anti-poor, anti-productivity and anti-progress Govt this country has ever witnessed. It’s a mess.
Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Daniel Garwe, who announced the 48-hour deadline, said the rapid growth of unregulated marketplaces has disrupted legally registered businesses.
He also said these markets have intensified unfair competition and created unsanitary conditions, which pose a risk for disease outbreaks like cholera and typhoid.
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