Tsvangirai urges former ZISCO workers to vote for a new government that will revive the steel giant

Monday, 06 February 2017

President Tsvangirai meets opinion leaders and informal miners in Midlands North

President Morgan Tsvangirai today met opinion leaders in Kadoma, addressed a provincial assembly meeting at the party office in Kwekwe and met informal miners (makorokoza) in Redcliff where he came face to face with the debilitating social effects on families of the collapse of Ziscosteel.

After a highly instructive engagement with church, business, traditional leaders and the youth, President Tsvangiral took time to explain the alliance building process and to get input on the Zimbabwe that people want post- Mugabe in 2018.

The people at the meetings gave strategic input on elections. They gave their thumbs up to a coalition but urged the party to do a due diligence on all potential partners to assess the value they will bring to the coalition.

President Tsvangirai urged the youth to register and vote in the next election, saying young people have a duty to define and defend their future through their active participation in the next election.

However, it was during President Tsvangirai’s engagement with the small scale informal miners (makorokoza) that the huge social impact of the closure of Ziscosteel came to the fore. The former Ziscosteel workers, who are now makorokoza, said they have not been paid for 10 years while the whole town has virtually ground to a halt.

In Torwood, there has been no running water for years while the mine is not allowing children to come to school without fees, despite owing the parents pensions and/or severance packages for more than a decade.

President Tsvangirai said the collapse of Ziscosteel and the murky manner in which the Essar deal in which an Indian firm wanted to pour in billions of dollars, represented the true Zanu PF legacy of unbridled incompetence.

He urged all the former Ziscosteel workers who are struggling to make ends meet to take part in the next election and vote in a new government that could come up with a robust response in reviving the steel giant.

Tomorrow, President Tsvangirai will meet opinion leaders in Mberengwa and Zvishavane.

Luke Tamborinyoka
Presidential Spokesperson and Director of Communications
Movement for Democratic Change

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