Tsvangirai walks to work

By Violet Gonda
16 September 16, 2005

Motivated by the desire to be in solidarity with the average person who is suffering so badly from the crippling fuel shortage, MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai has started a campaign of walking to work. The opposition leader walked on Friday for an hour and 15minutes from his home in Avondale West to the party headquarters, as Harvest House is in central Harare.

Tsvangirai who has also been unable to get fuel for himself said he has been touched by the plight of millions of workers walking long distances for as long as 4 hours. He said: "This thing has become so entrenched that people are accepting it as normal. I thought we needed to draw attention to the plight of Zimbabweans over the fuel issue."

Harare has no fuel, even at the stations where fuel is being sold at US$ denominated prices. Tsvangirai, who goes to Masvingo and Mutare this weekend, said he is consulting his party's provincial leadership on the issue of the way forward.

He said, "You have to rally everyone to the agenda for public resistance to this plight and abuse." He urged people to pluck up the courage and not to adapt to this suffering.