The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
MR Moffat Ndlovu painfully wakes up at 4AM every day of the five working days of the week. If he wakes up anytime later than that he will be late for work and have his salary deducted.
He stays in Bulawayo’s Lobengula West (Mountain View) and walks to work braving all the weather vagaries. He says he has grown used to that. His solution to easing the distance he walks daily is getting accommodation in Bellevue, Sizinda or Tshabalala which are suburbs closer to his workplace.
“I used to cycle to work until I lost my bicycle to thugs when I was coming from work. I now wake up at 4AM every day. I usually leave home 30 minutes later. In winter it will be dark but kombis will be there already and women who get their stuff from the market will be up and on the road. So, I am not worried about being mugged,” he said. Mr Ndlovu said boarding a bus daily was something that can wait.
“I have ceased to include transport money in my budget. And I am making better use of it in more pressing things. The money that I am getting from work is painfully inadequate. I can not even afford to buy US$100 from the streets and my rental for a single room is US$30,” he said.
Mr Ndlovu has a family. He has a wife and four children who are all in school. His wife has set up a tomato and other small items’ stall at the gate outside their lodgings where she hopes to get the little forex to supplement what her husband brings from his industrial toils.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) secretary general Mr Japhet Moyo
Mr Ndlovu is not alone in this predicament. His story sums up the life of some workers that are meant to mark Workers’ Day today. Poor salaries and a rising cost of living have continued to haunt the workers, all because of the market that has been benchmarked on the forex black market rate by unscrupulous businesses.
Labour expert Mr Davies Ndumiso Sibanda says the black market situation was making life difficult for workers. “A situation where the RTGS is losing value against the USD on the parallel market is eroding the workers’ earnings.
If you look at a situation where three days ago the rate was at 350 and now is at 400 and is going up you will realise the rate at which salaries are being made worthless. And if we want to be honest, 80 percent of all payments are now in USD and at parallel market rates.
“Talk of rentals, fuel, medication, pharmacy and even farm labour to produce on the land. Only payments that are statutory are the ones made in RTGS and that is the reality that we can not run away from,” said Mr Sibanda.
He added that it was gratifying to note that some employers have been sensitive to the plight of their employees and were paying a component of the salaries in USD but said there was need for a holistic solution.
Mr Sibanda submitted that there are indications that the various workers’ institutions have lost capacity of representing workers in as far negotiating for salaries is concerned.
“Workers now believe in their respective workers committees for negotiating for salaries. They say there are better results than when they engage the National Employment Council (NEC) and other worker representative bodies that are outside their workplaces and that is very tricky. The NEC and other institutions remain relevant and important in fighting for workers’ rights,” he said.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) secretary general Mr Japhet Moyo confirmed that there had been a massive erosion of earnings. He said the challenge was that the bulk of employers were resisting paying salaries in USD saying they have no capacity to do so.
“Yes, there has been massive erosion of workers’ salaries in both the private and public sectors and as organised labour at the Tripartite Negotiation Forum (TNF) and sector level negotiations we have been pushing for remuneration in USD,” said Mr Moyo.
