THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) says a plan by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) to retrench over 1 000 employees is disastrous and was a sign the country has no solutions to arrest the economic decline.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
Last week, NRZ board chairman Larry Mavima told the State media that the parastatal was set to lay off about 1 400 workers after completion of a forensic audit.
However, ZCTU secretary-general Japhet Moyo told NewsDay that the number was too big and government needed a rethink.
“In the last three months we have received about 133 reports of companies that have closed down and now there is this (retrenchment of NRZ workers). This is a clear indication that the government has not indicated which measures are they going to put in place to address the economic challenges,” Moyo said.
“We are concerned about job losses in this country and we seem not to be doing something as a nation to address it.”
The ailing parastatal has a $144 million debt of which nearly half ($68 million) is owed to workers.
Parastatals have been accused of bleeding the fiscus as they competed to underperform. However, there have been moves to realign the operations of the parastatal and cut the coat according to the size of the cloth in the wake of dwindling revenue inflows to Treasury which meant that parastatals could not continue enjoying government’s financial support.
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The massive job losses are in contrast to the promises of heaven on earth by the ruling Zanu PF in the run up to the 2013 elections. Zanu PF promised the electorate that it was going to create 2,2 million jobs by 2018.
