“Government and civil
servants yesterday sealed a salary accord after the employer improved its offer
to the workers from $350 million to $400 million,” reported Zimeye.
“This will translate to a
salary increment of $129 across board effective April 1. The lowest paid worker
in grade B1 will now be getting $570 up from $441.”
Both government and Apex
Council, the body that negotiated and signed the agreement on behave of the
civil servants, are not being honest and truthful here. They are quoting the
wages in dollars knowing fully well that in the past government has quoted the
workers' wages in US$ but paid them in RTGS$, insisting the exchange rate was
1:1.
Ever since the RBZ governor’s
February Monetary Policy Statement, government has since adopted the RTGS$ as
the official government currency and adjusted the exchange rate to 2.5:1 and so
the grade B1 worker who was paid RTGS$ 441 = US$441 before the policy statement
will now be paid RTGS$ 570 (441 + 129 increment) in April 2019 or US$ 228.
So the worker has just taken
nearly a 50% wage cut!
The rate of inflation has started
to soar again and is currently 59%, up from 10% or so three months ago. The
RTGS$ is certain to lose its value relative to the US$ and other foreign
currency. This is bad news, in a country 70% dependent on imported goods and
services.
Apex Council chairperson Mrs
Cecelia Alexander said negotiations will continue until the welfare of civil
servants improved.
“Though we have our demands
which we want met, at least this is a sign of fruitful dialogue which has
culminated into this agreement,” she said.
“As Apex Council we will
continue negotiating with the employer and this agreement is subject to review
in June. We have agreed that developments in the economy, whether positive or
negative, will see the parties sitting on the table to dialogue.”
The poverty datum line for a
single family worker in Zimbabwe is US$650 per month. Our grade B1 worker has
just been dragged from US$441 per month to US$ 228 per month in just one swipe and
those negotiating on his/her behave tell the worker it was a “fruitful dialogue”!
In the Africa 2017 Wealth
Report by New World Wealth, Zimbabwe was considered the poorest nation in
Africa. So we are in a league of our own and yet we are still frantically
determined to sink to new depths of economic depravity and despair.
Last week senior doctors at Zimbabwe’s
four referral hospitals gave government an ultimatum to address the shortages
of bandages, medicine and other essentials or they will stop reporting for work.
The situation is so bad that staff in burns-units, for example, have been
forced to wash and use the same bandages! (The situation in the smaller
provincial and district hospitals will be a lot worse, of course!)
Now the doctors, nurse and
the rest of the health workers will be amused to hear that they are not only
being asked to work in terrible conditions with no basic necessities but, worse
still, their meagre salary will be cut by half with worse will follow!
Zimbabwe is in a
serious economic and political mess and this is all a man-made disaster. For
the last 38 years Zimbabweans have watched whilst Zanu PF thugs dragged the
country deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth. How long are we going to
allow this madness to continue, is what I would want to know!
When one looks at the political and economic mess in Zimbabwe today one is tempted to say the nation was not ready for independence when that happened. Still ready or not that is now academic, the fact of the matter is we did gain our independence and God knows we have made a dog's breakfast of it. The only matters that count now is whether we are capable of learning from the mistakes and save ourselves or are we doom to suffer and die a failed nation?
ReplyDeleteIt is as clear as day that Zanu PF rigged last year's elections and, worse still, that the regime has no clue what to do to revive the economy. Why this is not clear to millions of Zimbabweans out there that Zanu PF is just wasting the nation's time is itself a mystery. Still what cannot be deny is that the nation has paid dearly for the 38 years of Zanu PF misrule.
The country's health services, education, supply of clean water, supply of electricity, etc. have all but collapsed sinking the nation deeper and deeper into new and uncharted waters of economic hardships and despair.
Yes government and Apex Council would want the civil servant to believe that their economic wellbeing has improved to the tune of $570 up from $441. The reality is that their economic condition has actually got a lot worse to the tune of $228 down from $441. It will not take them a day to learn that reality! It is the one wearing the shoe who knows how much they pinch.
There is a story of former Police Commissioner Chihuri who once passed out because he was wearing shoes so tight fitting they stopped blood circulation! There will be many, many cases of Zimbabweans passing out because the economic shoes they are being force to wear are too tight!
Zimbabwe is a great country and we can all live here happily but for that to happen we have to work for it.
@ Ndlamini
ReplyDelete“According to reports, the Government offered a salary rise of $400 million, from the $300 million which it had promised earlier. The $400 million will be shared among all the workers in the civil service. The offer will probably translate to a salary increment of $129 across the board,“ you say.
The $300 million was offered when the RTGS$:US$ exchange rate was 1:1 and the $400 million was offered now with the exchange rate at 2.5:1. In other words the $300 million has just been reduced to $160 million in real terms.
The people know that the RTGS$ has lost its value compared to the US$ on which the price of goods and services is fixed. It is said you can convince a blind man there is no maize samp in his plate of rice but not so with hot chilli in the relish. Everyone knows by being paid in RTGS$ instead of US$ they are being short changed big time.
The regime first introduced the Bond Notes, the forerunner of the RTGS$ it promised not to bring back the scrapped Z$ and yet that is exactly what it has now done. Zanu PF printed the Z$ as if there is no tomorrow fuelling the country’s inflation which peaking at 500 billion percent by 2008 when the Z$ was scrapped. The regime is set to do the same now with the RTGS$, inflation has risen from 10% three months ago to 59% today. Stead she goes!
“The new dispensation under President Emmerson Mnangagwa understands the difficulties faced by its employees. Since it came into power, President Mnangagwa's administration has been timeously and constantly rewarding its employees,” you say.
Of course, the regime has just given the workers RTGS$129 increase to the RTGS$441, 29% wage increase, to make RTGS$ 570 and is making a big song and dance about that. The regime knows the RTGS$ has lost value against the US$, from 1:1 it is now 2.5:1. The RTGS$ 570 is only worth US$228 and the regime is saying nothing about it! Yes the new dispensation is “timeously and constantly rewarding its employees” with damned lies!
In A statement ARTUZ said, "We note with disgust the flawed deal signed between the government and the illegitimate and highly compromised APEX council.
ReplyDelete"The deal offers a meagre US$ 26 salary increment to the current US$ 120. In total, an average teacher will be earning the US $146 in April 2019. This falls far short of US $1 150 needed to sustain a family of 5 monthly.
"ARTUZ reiterates that government should simply honour our 2012 agreement and pay our current salaries in USD or equivalent. We reject the deal and we have no option but to take to the streets and withdraw our labour in due course.”
Now that this Zanu PF regime has successfully reintroduced the Z$ by the back door in the form of the RTGS$; there will be no stopping the regime will be printing more RTGS$ fuelling inflation.
Before the February Monetary Policy Statement the exchange rate to RTGS$:US$ was 1:1. After the statement it was 2.5:1. Since the prices of goods and services a pegged to the US$ those paid in RTGS$ had the wages cut by more than half!
The truth is the country’s education and health services have all but collapse, there is no way anyone expected to work for $146 per month when they need $1 150 just to survive! So the governments pretends to pay the teachers and they in turn pretend to work!
@ Tondi Murisa
ReplyDeleteSanctions, sanctions and corruption are the Achilles Heel inhibiting economic growth in Zimbabwe. The illegal restrictive measures are causing untold suffering to those at the bottom of the economic pile. Some may want to put lipstick on a frog by calling the sanctions 'targeted', indeed targeted at little Zimbabwe.
ZIDERA is throwing multiple spanners in the economy reversing all the gains and cutting off progress. Lines of credit have been constricted forcing the country to operate from hand to mouth. Which pugilist can win a bout when both hands are manacled.
Sanctions is just a red herring Zanu PF has used to fool the politically naive and gullible. There are six things to say to you:
IMF and WB stopped granting Zimbabwe the lines of credible at the end of the second 5-year Economic Structural Adjustment Programme in 2000 because Zanu PF was failing to service its existing loans. ZIDERA was imposed in December 2001.
The Chinese did give Zimbabwe loan and financial assistance for a while after 2000 following Mugabe’s “Look East!” policy. The loans and financial assistance soon stop for exactly the same reason IMF stop - Zanu PF failed to repay the debt.
The Americans may well have had other ulterior reasons for imposing the sanctions but before the 2018 elections they did explained they would lift the sanctions if Mnangagwa kept his promised and held free, fair and credible elections. Of course he rigged the elections. He failed to even produce something as basic as a verified voters’ roll!
Corruption and mismanagement are the main causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. Zimbabwe lost $15 billion in looted diamond revenue in 3 or so years according to Mugabe’s own 2016 admission. Sanctions’ contribution is but a fraction.
If you are a true Zimbabwean who cares about the country’s well being why are you concerned about changing American foreign policy, lifting the sanction. And have said nothing about Zanu PF rigging elections to stay in power to loot! You are just a pathetic idiot, a Zanu PF apologist masquerading as a patriotic Zimbabwean! Zimbabwe has more than its fair share of idiots like you who will sell their own mother for a price and be proud they had a mother to sell!
Zimbabwe is in this economic mess because of 38 years of corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF rule. The only way to end the regime’s reign is by making sure there are free, fair and credible elections. The sanctions are one of the ways of putting pressure on the regime to hold free elections and hence the reason the sanctions must stay.