MDC-T Youths Vow to Continue Street Protests
'We are not scared at all about police that crushed our protests last week. We will be on these streets until our grievances are met by the ruling party'
WASHINGTON DC — Battered Movement for Democratic Change youths say they will continue staging street protests until President Robert Mugabe unveils jobs promised in the run up to the 2013 general elections. MDC-T national Youth Wing spokesperson, Clifford Hlatswayo, said the youths have lined up a number of protests, in an attempt to force the ruling party to fulfill its election promise. “We are not scared at all about police that crushed our protests last week. We will be on these streets until our grievances are met by the ruling party,” said Hlatswayo. He said they are planning to stage nationwide protests in order to force President Mugabe’s government to create the promised 2.2 million jobs. Zimbabwe says its unemployment rate is currently pegged at just over 11 percent but independent economists have put the figure at more than 80 percent. The majority of people are currently in the informal sector, selling goods ranging from tomatoes to state-of-the-art computers and imported vehicles. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) reported recently that industrial capacity utilization has gone down to about 30 percent. In 2011, industrial capacity utilisation averaged 57% before it dropped to 44% in 2012 and 39,6% in 2013 respectively. The CZI is reporting that a total of 10 Bulawayo companies were either liquidated or placed under judicial management between January and June this year. Meanwhile, a top policy expert says some aspects of Zimbabwe’s five-year economic blue print can be implemented through the use of community resources. Researcher and policy analyst, Bulter Thambo, of the Policy Research Institute of Zimbabwe, says projects such as cattle rearing, which appear to be part of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Social and Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET), need creativity to kick start. Thambo told Studio 7 the major hurdle is that ZIMASSET, which needs $27 billion to implement, is not being widely publicized by the government.