Tsvangirai talks to voters as he tours high density suburbs in Harare

By Tererai Karimakwenda
27 February, 2008

Many residents in Harare’s high-density suburbs were surprised on Wednesday when MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai showed up on their streets, looking to meet and speak with the local people. Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said Tsvangirai, accompanied by party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa and some news reporters, toured several local shopping centres and spoke to people on the streets about any issues they were concerned with.

Muchemwa said many residents of areas such as Mufakose, Kuwadzana, Kambuzuma and Dzivarasekwa could hardly believe that they were talking with the MDC leader in their own backyard. He said large crowds gathered whenever Tsvangirai stopped, but he did not stay in any one place too long.

Our correspondent said many people complained to the MDC leader that they could not find any jobs and housing was very expensive. Others talked about the shortages of basic goods and the power and water cuts.

Muchemwa said the MDC leader almost ran into problems in Kuwadzana, when local ZANU-PF members tried to divert the crowd, saying they wanted to talk about solutions to the water and power crisis.

Muchemwa said it was clear Tsvangirai was positioning himself as a “man of the people”.