Vending not a problem but the economy

Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU member Ephraim Mutombeni has said through his  article posted by Harare Residents Trust  that the move by government of Zimbabwe to give an ultimatum to vendors to vacate streets  was unfortunate and accused government of sleeping on duty saying the problem was not the vendors but the economy.

Mutombeni said President Robert Gabriel and his incompetent looting cabal government should stand strongly advised that vending is not the problem in Zimbabwe but the economy is thus victimizing vendors will never at any point create jobs, revive industries, improve our socioeconomic welfare as a nation and rejuvenate our ailing street-vending economy.

He said ZINASU is highly shocked with the level of reverse prioritization by our erstwhile government.

"They are busy drafting policies like the RBZ debt assumption bill which imposes on the general citizenry the obligation to pay back billions of dollars in servicing a debt which was never used for public development but was abused by greedy politicians like Grace Mugabe and other fat-cat government officials as revealed by a recent RBZ report," he said. "The government then punishes the masses that are busy clamoring for a living by banishing them from the streets with severe threats of unspecified action by the army."

He said due to economic decay as a result of the government's negligence governance style coupled with rampant corruption most of our tuition fees as students comes from the streets, when we graduate we go to the streets for a living due to failure by the Robert Mugabe led government to create employment.

"As such our welfare as students and members of ZINASU is enshrined in the streets, our fees, food, rent, and other academic expenses are acquired by our guardians who happen to be vendors," he said. "Hence, banning street-vending in our vendor economy is tantamount to giving us as students and our guardians an ultimatum to live and as ZINASU we vow to defend our livelihood to the death."

Mutombeni said furthermore it is plain that removing vendors from the economy will not do good to our economy, but removing Robert Mugabe and his lootocrat government will surely do, hence anyone sincere about bringing sanity to the streets and economy should clamor for the removal of failed despot Robert Mugabe not the highly ill advised separation of vendors from their livelihood.

"ZINASU is calling for all students and good willed citizens of Zimbabwe to defend their livelihood and also stand in solidarity with the vendors who currently are running our economy on behalf of failed finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and the whole Zimbabwean government," Mutombeni said.

"The government of Zimbabwe should also stand guided that street-vending is not a hobby but a means of livelihood hence the people of Zimbabwe will defend it with their lives for they will not be defending vending but they will be defending their lives."