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Tsvangirai expresses shock at unemployment levels

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MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has expressed shock at the high level of unemployment among people in the country, particularly the youths saying the matter was a national disaster.

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has expressed shock at the high level of unemployment among people in the country, particularly the youths saying the matter was a national disaster.

Stephen Chadenga

Tsvangirai, who addressed Gweru city councillors on Thursday before touring projects in the city, said many youths he talked to were emotionally distressed because of lack of jobs.

Independent economists put the unemployment rate in the country at over 80% with most people making a living through the informal sector.

“Today (Thursday) is a working day, yet you see a huge number of people, particularly the youths, roaming the streets doing nothing,” Tsvangirai told journalists after the tour.

“Unemployment is a major national concern to us as MDC. It is a national crisis that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.”

Tsvangirai said the purpose of his tours in urban areas was to monitor the MDC-T-dominated councils to see if they were adhering to the party’s social democratic values.

The MDC-T leader toured vending sites in the city centrec and some in the high-density areas where he met informal traders to get an appreciation of the challenges they are facing.

He said it was disheartening that Zanu PF had run down the economy and Gweru which used to be an industrial hub was now a “city with dead industries” and this affected potential revenue for the local authority.

Tsvangirai urged the municipality not to engage in running battles with illegal vendors, but to talk to them to try and address and their plight. “You don’t need to have running battles with them, but persuade them to be organised and be orderly. They (vendors) are victims of a comatose economy,” he said.