THIS year’s May Day commemorations marked the 17th year since the collapse of formal employment in Zimbabwe.
Workers for nearly two decades are on zero-hour contracts and things like pension, medical aid and decent housing are alien.
The decline was slow, but accelerated soon after the completion of first phase of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap).
It is controversial to take the line that since the 1960s, Zimbabwe’s labour force enjoyed some benefits of formal employment.
They mostly enjoyed pensions, medical aid, decent housing and, in some instances, support for educational funding.
At independence in 1980, the situation even got much better.
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Many black Zimbabweans had access to polytechnics or apprentice training.
They were paid to learn. Even university students had payouts.
The next crop of workers started on a better footing.
Corruption in government and the unnecessary Gukurahundi were a significant drain on the fiscus, a reality many are reluctant to link to the higher taxes imposed on companies and employees to cover the resulting deficits.
Zimbabwe was forced to go cap in hand begging for financial support from the IMF.
The financial support did not come cheap.
It had conditions that included cutting the government wage bill, cuts in social spending (education and public health) and the privatisation of State-owned enterprises.
It would be an understatement to say Esap brought job losses. It was a carnage.
Thousands lost their jobs and were driven into the informal sector without financial support or adequate training on operating small to medium enterprises (SMEs).
Esap further called for forex deregulation and opening of borders for cheaper imports.
It was a bloodbath when Zimbabwe companies were forced to compete with South African manufacturers and thousands of informal traders importing from South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique primarily.
The decision by the Zimbabwe government in 1998 to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo war further made the economic situation dire locally.
Zimbabwe was bleeding foreign currency faster than it raised it from exports.
The productive sector was in a fix and the first casualty was labour.
The fast-track land reform programme, while desirable, was so chaotic that more than 800 000 jobs in the agriculture sector were lost in less than five years since 2000.
It has to be noted that the resultant loss of production at farms had on impact on industries such as David Whitehead, Olivine, Willards, National Foods, Blue Ribbon that depended on agricultural inputs for their production.
This also affected companies such as Farmec, Williama and Bain, Tarry’s and Duly’s that supplied agricultural implements.
Zimbabwe’s downward spiral did not stop.
It was made worse by the 2007/8 global recession coupled with local strong hyperinflation headwinds that decimated the remaining industrial base.
Companies closed. Pensions were lost.
And rose the “casino economy”, as former Finance minister Tendai Biti preferred to call it.
It’s only a few who go home with the loot, the rest go home with empty pockets or drowning in debt.
The Supreme Court then hammered the last nail in the workers coffin through the infamous Zuva judgment of 2015.
The judgment was clear: even permanent workers can lose their jobs on three months’ notice.
The post November 2017 coup government has not improved the situation for workers.
It introduced austerity, a new form of Esap.
The Finance ministry czar, Mthuli Ncube, behaves like an accountant, with his eye always on the bottomline.
The lucky few who are still in formal employment are getting slave wages, no medical aid, no transport subsidies and high-income taxes, coupled with other levies.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is on record complaining about the paltry U$150 minimum wage gazetted by the government.
Workers cannot breathe when the State’s heavy boot is on its neck.
The government’s fixation on neoliberal economics and the use of quantitative measures such as Gross Domestic Product has not helped workers.
Most workers cannot pay house rentals, eat three meals a day, seek medical attention, send their children to school and worst of all, cannot retire since the pensions are as good as nothing.
As Zimbabwe commemorates May Day, there should be a loud call to get back to the basics.
Workers should be allowed to unionise and withdraw their labour without fearing the State’s heavy-handed intervention to strikes.
The government should be pushed to acknowledge and implement a minimum wage that is above the poverty datum line (PDL).
Honour in hardwork should be restored.
Yes, people cannot get rich by working, but they need the support to meet their monthly needs.
This should be reflected in a minimum wage at least PDL plus 10% and an annual increment equivalent to inflation plus 2%.
The State must progressively see to it that workers have access to public health, have meaningful pensions, reasonable access to rental properties and efficient and affordable public transport system.
This is not asking much, even capitalist economies do the same for their workers.
A simple research on European Union, United States, South Africa and Botswana would be sufficient to bolster the argument for better working conditions and remuneration for workers.
Neoliberal economics pursued by the Zimbabwe government at the expense of the workers should be stopped.
Fixation on quantitative economics should be abandoned for qualitative economics.
It is not too late to abandon Ncube’s destructive economic policies and get back to people oriented policies.
It remains important for Zimbabwe to measure itself against the 2026 May Day international theme — Ensuring a Healthy Psychosocial Working Environment.
Workers cannot have good mental health when they are worried about poor wages, threats of retrenchments and poor working environment.
It remains true as Marx and Engels wrote in their 1848 book, Communist Manifesto: “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose, but your chains!”
I’m out!