Shakespeare Muzavazi
Amidst the economic woes bedeviling Zimbabwe, Gweru Street urchins to turn to vending as a way of survival, zwnews.com can exclusively reveal.
This comes when the President Robert Mugabe spent over 9 million on his 21st jamboree while most Zimbabweans are languishing in abject penury.
In an exclusive interview with this reporter, one of the street urchins, Brian Makohwa (10) articulated that for the past two months he has been selling CDs and DVDs for the man he calls boss in order to survive.
“l have been selling DVDs and CDs ,50 cents each for the past two months. My boss gives me 20 discs every day and he gives me $3per day”.
However, some of these urchins are complaining that sometimes they are being duped by their informal employers.
“Sometimes our bosses take advantage of us. They don’t give us the agreed amount and they even threatening to frame us for theft to the police,” said Mtholisi Ncube.
Gweru residents are in total support of such an act as highlighted by Tinashe Moyo who said , “l personally support these street kids for what they are doing because now people don’t have money even to give to those that beg in the streets which is causing some of them to survive on pick pocketing”
Alfred Mapuranga a business official in Gweru who owns Gweru Food Tech Bakery also said that “These street kids are doing a good thing rather than stealing for people in the community”
Zimbabwe has become so economically hostile to the extent that the underprivileged have nowhere to look for solace.
