HARARE - Opposition MDC party youths have threatened to unfurl street protests against President Robert Mugabe’s administration over the mounting economic hardships.
Clifford Hlatshwayo, MDC youth assembly spokesperson, told a news conference yesterday that the youths were hurting.
“The economic meltdown is affecting everyone,” Hlatshwayo told reporters at the party’s headquarters in Harare. “We have people who don’t even have a dollar in their pockets and yet they graduated 10 years ago. We are therefore saying, we have to protest against this.
“We are mobilising people and very soon we will go on to the streets. What we are saying is that people are suffering and we are ready to lead them in expressing their anger through peaceful demonstrations.”
Tsvangirai, earlier this year, called for peaceful mass protests against the government, which he accused of failing to remedy the current economic crisis.
However, Mugabe, during his Independence Day speech, vowed that he would crush any demonstration, saying people should not underestimate him, saying he can pack “a 90-tonne punch.”
Mugabe warned that the protests must be peaceful before threatening to deal with those who he says might conspire to use the protests to topple his re-elected government.
“But if people are going out merely to create violence because they are being instigated by some NGOs who don’t like Zanu PF then they are mistaken," Mugabe warned.
“They must look at us and our history... This old man may be 90 years old but this fist can pack a punch, 90 tonnes and I will knock you out with it.”
Hlatshwayo said Mugabe should discard his failed economic policies that he said had failed to address mass unemployment.
“The MDC youth assembly categorically calls for the abandonment of the partisan, anti-investor and non-consistent policies being pursued by the Zanu PF government like the ZimAsset and the indigenisation policy,” he said.
“All Zimbabwean youths want jobs and equal opportunities for them to realise their maximum potential as economic players.
“All the people of Zimbabwe want is a functional economy that encourages individual and national growth, not cheap political sloganeering under the guise of economic blueprints.”
Hlatshwayo argued that Mugabe and his party had failed to deliver on their election promise to provide 2,2 million jobs.
“Not only that, the same government has failed to honour its election promise to provide 2.2 million jobs,” he said.
“Instead, more job losses are experienced daily as companies fold under the current liquidity crunch. The majority of the youth find themselves jobless while thousands are forced out of employment due to increased company closures.”
The MDC youth spokesperson said the government should re-introduce university student loans and grants.
“We further demand that the so-called government honours its constitutional obligation to provide free basic education to children,” he said.