As you may know, Harare City council attempted to take down the Moto Republik hub creative container structure earlier today. The hub has since engaged the Minister of local government Saviour Kasukuwere as well as their lawyers.
The engagement of Zanu-PF politicians – the authors of the political & economic mess this country is in and whose mismanagement of the country Magamba Network frequently speaks against – has generated some debate. Whether wise or not, they have done it, and have released a statement to update Zimbabweans of their progress so far to save Moto Republik.
Here’s the statement:
In just over 4 days over 1,700 people have signed up to the petition to urge the Minister of Local Government Saviour Kasukuwere, Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni & The Acting Town Clerk, Josephine Ncube, to stop the demolition of Moto Republik, Zimbabwe’s first creative hub.
On Monday 13 March Saviour Kasukuwere responded to the online petition that has been trending in Zimbabwe over the last week to #SaveMotoRepublik and visited the popular are hub. The Moto Republik Management shared their position on the issue with the Minister and showed him all the relevant documents for the structure approved by the City Council. In his response the Minister promised to intervene and find an amicable resolution with council that would not involve demolition and would allow Mow Republik to continue operating.
We will continue to encourage our community online and offline to contact their elected officials to express their concern over the planned demolition of Moto Republik. “All we ask for is for the demolition to be stopped, for the containers to remain in place and for us to be allowed to carry on with our important work of empowering young people and supporting new ideas; said Moto Republik co-founder Tangai Leslie Makawa AKA Outspoken.
We have engaged our lawyers to resolve the matter ahead of the March 16 deadline by sending a letter of demand to the city fathers, which has been followed up this afternoon by an urgent chamber application for an interdict against the illegal demolition should the council not respond to our request to stop the demolition.
We thank all of our supporters out there for raising their voices, taking action and standing with the positive space that is Moto Republik. Thousands of young voices cannot be ignored.
Moto Republik 14th March 2017
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3 comments
Like it or not the loathed Saviour Kasukuwere is the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing the perfect candidate member to hear this. He might be a bafoon but he has his hands on the button. He has the power to save the structure and engaging him is a good thing. Live to fight another day. Martyrs don’t get to fight battles.
100% correct
Fact that minister seeks to find an amicable solution suggests the papers although they may bear council stamps and everything may not be in order. Remember council is not bound by fraudulent actions of its employees. Public would raise an outcry if the structure were to collapse bcoz maybe it was not constructed according to laid down procedure( no engineer supervision and certification maybe). Henceforth all signing petition should not criticise zanu govt for not following rule of law. We have shown all we want is to replace zanu in doing as we wish. Sad