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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the government, parastatals and the private sector are all laden with labor issues related to salary increases as the U.S. dollar rate hit over 1: 60 to the Zimbabwe dollar.

Illegal money changers are charging as much as 78 ZWL to 1 U.S. dollar and prices have also been galloping since most of the foreign currency used by manufacturers is acquired on the black market.

Prices of nearly all basic commodities, including milk, bread, sugar, beef, cooking oil and maize meal, have risen considerably in recent weeks, prompting workers to agitate for higher salaries.

The government is due to meet civil servant representatives this week to negotiate the gap between what is being offered by tax collector the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and worker representatives.

ZIMRA has offered the workers a 140 percent salary wage and benefit allowance increase to 3,370 ZWL per month for the least paid for the year while the Zimbabwe Revenue and Allied Trade Union (ZIMRATU) is negotiating for a 1,350 percent increase to 20,362 ZWL for the same.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mavima said the government was committed to comprehensively review its workers’ incomes and the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) would meet soon over the workers’ welfare.

“As Government we appreciate the need to cushion our workers against the tough economic environment. The NJNC should be meeting as the negotiating forum between government and its employees,” said Mavima.

“They last met in January when a minimum salary was agreed on, but we feel that there has been an erosion because of inflation. The issue of this erosion of incomes is well-appreciated by government,” he told The state-run Sunday Mail.

The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said in a tweet at the weekend that among conditions for re-opening of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic was the need to adjust teachers’ salaries.

“Our conditions for re-opening remain the same: a visible plateau viz.COVID-19 cases; testing of all teachers, ancillary staff, learners; provision of adequate PPE; USD520 salary or equivalent,” it said.

According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, the monthly low-income urban family budget for a family of six was about 8,725 ZWL in May, yet the lowest-paid government worker earns about 3,000 ZWL before deductions.

Mavima said the government would not commit to paying its workers in foreign currency as widely expected by the civil service.

“Our position is that we cannot remunerate our workers in U.S. dollars. As government, we cannot run around looking for U.S. dollars when we have just introduced a new currency,” he said.

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions secretary-general Japhet Moyo also told The Sunday Mail that most employers were failing to make salary adjustments according to inflation trends.

“We had this discussion about workers welfare at our Tripartite Negotiating Forum and there are various proposals that we put on the table,” said Moyo.

“The first one was to continuously review the incomes so that they follow inflationary trends. The second one was to see whether authorities can be able to establish an unemployment benefit scheme, because a number of able-bodied people are now unemployed and they need to be assisted,” he said.

He said the National Social Security Authority was tasked with crafting an unemployment benefit scheme to assist those who would have lost jobs.

“And thirdly, we needed to look at our currency reforms. Our view is that if that cannot be done as a short term measure we need to then ensure that incomes are regularly reviewed to follow the trend,” he said.

Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe president Israel Murefu said many businesses were either in intensive care or functionally dead and thus unable to review salaries.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant lockdown had severely disrupted operations, markets and production value chains.

“Businesses are not only grappling with survival but escalating costs which threaten business viability,” he said.

“Therefore, given such a scenario, the first rule of thumb is to find ways of recovering and bringing back to life many businesses. Survival is the priority so that jobs or employment can be saved or restored to pre-lockdown levels if possible,” he said.

He also urged employees to exercise restraint when demanding salary reviews as employers had not been spared the economic challenges.

“The currency devaluation and consequent inflation are not sparing the employer. This means employers and employees have to meet each other halfway so that there is a win-win outcome,” he said.

Post published in: Business

In Summary

• The chasm continues to play out on social media and in government circles, with Harare firing salvos at America, drawing parallels with the unrest in the US.

The raging anti-racism protests in the United States have widened the rift between Zimbabwe and Washington, threatening reengagement talks between the two countries.

US national security adviser Robert O’Brien stirred the hornet’s nest this week when he referred to the southern African country as one of the foreign adversaries alongside China and Russia that were allegedly taking advantage of protests over the killing of George Floyd to fuel unrest in America.

Infuriated by Mr O’Brien’s statements, Zimbabwe summoned the US ambassador Brian Nichols to lodge a formal complaint, but the meeting between the envoy and Foreign Affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo failed to heal the rift.

Mr Moyo and Ambassador Nichols issued conflicting statements about their engagement with the envoy saying, “Americans will continue to speak out for justice whether at home or abroad.”

He reminded his hosts of unresolved cases of police brutality and the recent abductions of three female opposition activists, which he said needed closure.

Mr Moyo said Harare was reflecting “on the lack of balance and even the double standards so evident in US policy towards Zimbabwe.”

The chasm continues to play out on social media and in government circles.

Zimbabwe Defence deputy minister Victor Matemadanda even went to the extent of organising a protest in solidarity with the late Floyd.

Police, however, blocked the protest that was set to take place outside the US embassy in Harare saying “while the demonstration is for a noble cause” it contravened lockdown regulations to stop the spread of coronavirus.

“US President Trump must no longer blow his trumpet. We are not going to war but (we are demonstrating) that we are not happy over the killing of George Floyd,” Mr Matemadanda said and added that the US cannot lecturer Zimbabwe on democracy because of its troubled race relations.

“They talk about themselves having the best justice system in the world. Yes, America has always had a justice system, but one that is racial,” said Mr Matemadanda, who is also political commissar for the ruling Zanu-PF party.

“They are worried and concerned about the white Americans and do not care about the lives of black Americans.”

Mr O’Brien’s statements were a throwback to the 2005 declaration by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Zimbabwe was among the “outposts of tyranny” in the world.

Ms Rice said the US had a duty to help foster freedom in Zimbabwe, Burma, Cuba, Belarus, Iran and North Korea. It was at the height of a diplomatic rift between the US and Zimbabwe on Harare’s alleged poor human rights record.

Philani Moyo, a Zimbabwe-born academic from the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, said the latest diplomatic tiff showed that Washington was not softening its stance on Zimbabwe.

“The reference to Zimbabwe as a foreign adversary not only signifies the Trump administrations’ policy position but continues decades of strained diplomatic relations,” Prof Moyo said.

DISPASSIONATE TREATMENT

“When read together with Mr Nichols’ statement after his meeting with Mr Moyo, it becomes clear that the Trump administration does not view the current Zimbabwe government as different from the Mugabe regime hence its characterisation as an opponent in geopolitical and geostrategic interests.”

The US diplomat said in the meeting with Mr Moyo he had “urged the government to end state-sponsored violence against peaceful protestors, civil society, labour leaders and members of the opposition and to hold accountable those responsible for human rights abuses.”

Christopher Mutsvangwa, a former presidential adviser, said the envoy was wrong to draw parallels between the situation in America and Zimbabwe’s human rights record.

“As he lists unresolved cases, ambassador Nichols needs to be even-handed. The existence of such victims serves to highlight the magnitude of the political challenges burdening President Mnangagwa and the new dispensation. It also calls for dispassionate treatment from all nations that mean well and especially from the democratic superpower that is USA,” Mr Mutsvangwa said.

Western missions accused the Zimbabwe government of human rights violations, including the abduction and torture of its opponents. The government denies any involvement in abductions and blames a “third force.”

The US first imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2001 when it enacted the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera).

Zidera bars Americans sitting on boards of international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank from supporting financing arrangements for the southern Africa country.

A year after the law was passed; the US introduced an executive order of measures that imposed a travel ban and an assets freeze against then president Robert Mugabe and his close associates.

Washington also imposed sanctions on some of Zimbabwe’s state-owned companies and imposed an arms embargo on the country as punishment for alleged human rights violations and electoral fraud.

Zimbabwe terms the sanctions punishment for its land reform programme that began in 2000, and saw the seizure of nearly 5,000 commercial farms owned by white Zimbabweans that were redistributed to landless blacks.

***

SANCTIONS HISTORY

The US insists Zimbabwe has not implemented economic reforms necessary for the 2001 sanctions to be reviewed.

Since coming to power, President Mnangagwa has lobbied the AU and SADC to support Zimbabwe’s push for the removal of the sanctions, without success.

In March, the US added Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Tanzania Anselem Sanyatwe and State Security minister Owen Ncube to the sanctions list for their alleged role in the killings and abduction of opposition activists.

The US insists that its sanctions are targeted and only affect the ruling elite while President Mnangagwa blames the embargo for the country’s economic collapse.

Post published in: Featured

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/49980041133/sizes/z/

The minister maintained that the government ‘does not permit any of its institutions and agencies to use torture, forced disappearance or abductions’. Such methods, he said, were ‘extrapolated from foreign environments for the benefit of regime change sponsors’.

Kazembe alleged that the chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, Fortune Nyamande, and his secretary, Norman Matara, were not resident in the country but had come back specifically to ‘fake’ the abduction. He said there had been consistent contamination of the entire chain of evidence by MDC leaders, activists and officials of foreign embassies who had gained access ahead of the investigating authorities.

Kazembe said examination of the women by government doctors had not shown any injuries matching the women’s accounts which, he said, showed ‘signs of coaching’. He claimed that before they were taken to hospital they went to MDC leader Chamisa’s private offices, adding: ‘the famed abduction was a desperate attempt to qualify for a US 10-month scholarship’.

His allegations were dismissed by the MDC’s deputy spokesman, Clifford Hlatshwayo, who said: ‘Zanu PF is behaving like a terrorist organisation. They are very cruel and think people are objects they can abuse, torture and rape. We are all God’s people and time will come when all this will end. The time is now.’ (See: https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/06/chamisa-diplomats-stage-managed-abductions-govt/).

Kazembe’s remarks came after a week of bruising exchanges between the Zanu PF government and the United States over the killing of an Afro-American by police in Minneapolis. The American ambassador, Brian Nichols (himself black), pointed out in a statement after meeting Foreign Minister Moyo that the policeman had already been charged with murder but people were wondering when abducted Zimbabweans would get justice.

‘I again urged Zimbabwe’s government to end state-sponsored violence against peaceful protesters, civil society, labour leaders and members of the opposition in Zimbabwe, and to hold accountable those responsible for human rights abuses . . . Peaceful protesters Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were arrested, abducted, assaulted and left for dead. To those who deny America’s right to speak out on their fate, let me remind you, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere . . . Whatever affects one directly, affects us all indirectly.”’  (See: https://twitter.com/usembassyharare/status/1267450903512129536).

Other points

• The arrest of MDC leaders for trying to enter their own headquarters is further evidence that Zimbabwe is back to the 2008 collapse scenario. As Siphosame Malunga puts it in an article in the Africa Report: ‘Hollowed out and looted, the state can no longer look after its own soldiers and police, and their families; let alone address the spectre of mass starvation and a public health emergency haunting over half of Zimbabwe’s 16 million people.’ (See: https://www.theafricareport.com/29111/zimbabwes-critical-choice-state-collapse-or-people-powered-change/).
• Zimbabwean economist Christopher Mugaga, who is chief executive of the National Chamber of Commerce, says he expects to see inflation, put at nearly 700% in March, shoot up to 1,800% by the end of the year. He believes that the country will re-dollarise by then (see: https://bulawayo24.com/news/national/186612).

• We are sad to report the passing away of Vigil activist Eletha Mpofu from stomach cancer on Friday. Our condolences go to her family. Also in our thoughts is Vigil activist Kevin Wheeldon who was admitted to hospital with coronavirus about a week ago. We were pleased to receive a message from him that he was getting better.

• Because of the coronavirus we can no longer physically meet outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London, so we have a virtual Vigil while the lockdown continues. We ask our activists to put on Vigil / ROHR / Zimbabwe regalia and take a photo of themselves holding an appropriate poster reflecting our protest against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The photos are uploaded on our Flickr site (see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/albums/72157714609971221). Our virtual Vigil activists today were Mavis Harrison, Patricia Masamba and Esther Munyira who all kindly contributed to Vigil funds.
• For Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website.

NOTICES:

• The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents us.
• The Vigil’s book ‘Zimbabwe Emergency’ is based on our weekly diaries. It records how events in Zimbabwe have unfolded as seen by the diaspora in the UK. It chronicles the economic disintegration, violence, growing oppression and political manoeuvring – and the tragic human cost involved. It is available at the Vigil. All proceeds go to the Vigil and our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe’s work in Zimbabwe. The book is also available from Amazon.
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Post published in: Featured

The ministry of lands and agriculture said grain output would increase to 1,060,143 tonnes from 944,000 tonnes harvested last year. That is still below the national requirement of 2.23 million tonnes, the report said.

Last year, Zimbabwe had a grain shortfall of 700,000 tonnes, with stocks carried over from the 2018 season helping narrow the gap.

The World Food Programme is leading humanitarian efforts to feed millions of Zimbabweans and has warned of deepening climate- and recession-induced food shortages.

The crop report said grain stocks in more than half of Zimbabwe’s 60 rural districts would not last six months.

The coronavirus outbreak is seen inflicting more damage on Zimbabwe’s economy, which is already grappling with the effects of a devastating drought in 2019 and erratic rains this year as well as a fiscal crisis.

Post published in: Agriculture