CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) senator for Bulawayo Tsepiso Mpofu has accused suspected Zanu PF vending bay barons of fleecing vendors by forcing them to pay rentals after allocating them illegal space along 5th Avenue.
The vending bay barons are members of the Vendors4ED group.
Mpofu exchanged harsh words with one of the space barons, accusing him of stealing from poor vendors and bringing people from outside Bulawayo to trade in the city.
“These space barons are bringing people from Masvingo and register them as voters in Bulawayo as Zanu PF has been struggling to get enough votes in Bulawayo since 2000,” Mpofu said in an audio circulating on social media.
“We are vendors for Economic Development (ED). If we allocate people stands here, we do not choose whether one is Zanu PF or not,” the space baron is heard responding to her concerns.
The space baron said they had met Bulawayo councillors to inform them that they would be parcelling out space and that the council should not interfere.
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“We do not seek permission, but we simply tell you that we are doing this and that, whether you say you do not want it, we do not care at all,” he said, adding that transferring people to Bulawayo was their strick to register new voters.
Contacted by Southern Eye yesterday, Mpofu said: “They are now threatening me and demanding that I should show them the person who is collecting money from the vendors. I told them I have seen people doing that. I also told them that we have no Vendors for CCC, and it is bad to politicise vending as vendors seek to survive. Vendors for ED is politicising the sector.”
Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Archibold Chiponda said Mpofu should provide evidence to back up her claims.
“Can she provide us names and details of the people doing this or some evidence? Politics is a numbers game. If we were to bring people from Masvingo to come and vote in Bulawayo, how do you think Zanu PF as a party in Masvingo will feel? Of course, we will be reducing their votes in Masvingo, and what senator Mpofu is saying does not make sense,” Chiponda said.
He said Zanu PF’s core business was politics, not vending or collecting money from vendors.
Deputy mayor Mlandu Ncube said Mpofu’s assertions were correct.
“That is what has been happening along 5th Avenue. That is what those hooligans are doing, claiming that they were sent to do so. But soon council will remove them regardless of political affiliation. They must understand that Bulawayo voters are smart voters, and they are worried whenever they see people sabotaging the council vision to develop a smart city,” he said.