EDWIN MOYO
GWERU- MDC -T aspiring candidate for Gweru Urban, Brian Dube has castigated the move by Gweru City Council to confiscate vendors wares selling on undesignated points in the CBD.
Speaking to this publication during an interview, aspiring MP Dube who is also the seating legislator for Gweru Urban Constituency said, it was illegal for Council to take residents property or vendors ware as they are trying to eke out an honest living in difficult times.
“Property attachments issues were raised in parliament, and that issue was described as something which is illegal as taking people’s property is increasing poverty on residents.
“As MDC T we are saying, no to the suffering of ordinary citizens. Pensioners invested a lot in their welfare, some worked for more than 50 years to build houses and accumulate their properties but right now council want to just come and grab that just like that.
“It’s sad that some of their savings had since been eroded due to economic challenges and due to lack of proper protection from the government. This has left our senior citizens suffering as they cannot account for their savings that took them years to accumulate,” added.
He added that, Council was not supposed to rely on rates for survival.
“Realistically Council is not supposed to depend on rates from residents. Rather they must have other projects and sources of revenue to boost production.
“We have our Go Beer Pvt Ltd, we have our abattoirs , we have market stalls which are supposed bring in revenue to Council.
“If council then resorts to push vendors out of their vending sites it becomes a problem because residents have no other sources of revenue than selling their wares and engaging in side hassles,” he added.
Dube said he is confident of retaining his seat as his works are there for all to see as he is confident that he executed his mandate with flying colours in the past five years that he has been a legislator.
He added that, despite the uneven political field, MDC T is a social democratic party which embraced even the poor in society.
