People’s Democratic Party youths on Friday, defied a ban on demonstrations by the Zimbabwe Republic Police which was recently upheld by the High Court and staged a peaceful march in the central business district of Harare demanding the immediate resignation of President Robert Mugabe.
The youths later handed over petitions to the embassies of South Africa, Mozambique and Botswana in the capital calling on Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union member states to support Zimbabweans in their calls for Mugabe to step down.
In their petition, signed by the PDP Youth Assembly Chairperson, Moses Manyengavana, the youths said Mugabe and his government were the source of Zimbabwe’s problems and should pave way for a National Transitional Authority.
“Concerned citizens of Zimbabwe hereby implore the African community to support the call for the stepping aside of Robert Mugabe and his coterie of looters and allow a National Transitional Authority to run the country in their stead. The same people and structures which created problems for Zimbabwe cannot and will not be adequate or able to solve them,” the petition read.
The youths said the current government had committed several political, social and economic atrocities among them killings, kidnappings, looting, corruption and theft, which had caused the near collapse of the economy.
They said Mugabe and his cronies had robbed their generation of a future, as 90 percent of the youth population was unemployed and suffering in the informal sector where they faced a myriad of challenges, also caused by the same government.
“The people of Zimbabwe deserve servant leaders who will seek to put the needs and interests of the people before their own,” they said.
They said the NTA would be tasked with reviving the economy through attracting investment, create employment by reviving industry and aligning the country’s laws with the Constitution, which the current government had failed to do for the past three years.
“We hope the African community will support the people of Zimbabwe in this noble cause.Zimbabweans are ready to fix Zimbabwe because indeed another Zimbabwe is possible.”
They said African countries should push Zimbabwe to implement electoral reforms and create a level playing field.
PDP Spokesperson, Jacob Mafume, said despite attempts by the police to block their march, the youths had successfully handed over their petitions.
“The youths handed over their petitions to African embassies in Harare, namely Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa, although the police threw teargas at the marchers, which is the perfume of freedom,” he said.