Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) young workers have called on the government to introduce ‘Operation Restore Purchasing Power’ to deal with unending price increases of basic commodities in the country.
In an interview with 263Chat, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) National Young Workers Union, Tirivanhu Marimo urged government to swiftly act in the same manner they addressed the recent bread price increase.
“We as young workers are leading a campaign against the price increases that are happening within the country.
“We have observed that the price increases that are happening without anyone monitoring and we were expecting our government to act like what they did when bread price was increased from $1 to $1.10.
“They ignored all other commodities whereby prices are now being increased at the will of capitalists who are taking advantage of the poor people and foreign currency shortages within Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabweans are suffering and their festive season was stolen whereby people were forced to by things on these unfavorable prices just to cheer their families which is not good at all because now its back to school period parents do not have enough money for their children because of that and where is our government?,” said Marimo.
He urged citizens to come together with one voice and challenge those increasing the prices on daily basis.
“So we are saying let us stand up and say to what is happening to us since we are the ones suffering at the end of the day and if we keep quite people will think that we are ok with it.
“Youth are the ones suffering most because they constitute the majority of unemployed people within Zimbabwe and we are engaging all organisations that represent the youth and students so that we unite in this campaign and say no to what is being forced on our parents whereby their incomes have been eroded by more than 60% because of the price hikes.
“If you go to a shop you get three prices for a commodity one for US dollars,Bond notes,EcoCash and transfer and as young workers we are saying why because when the government introduced the bond notes they said its one is to one with US dollars and now its different .
“We understand that the politburo recently looked into the issue and set a commission which is going to look after that but this is just a structure of ZANU PF and where is our government.
“We know that ZANU PF is the ruling party but we have structures that are recognised by the government whereby citizens can request accountability because we can not report directly to the politburo so the government must take action,” said Marimo.
