Close to 400 workers are being retrenched on a weekly basis, a retrenchment board member has said.
This came out during a public forum organised by Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) to delineate the notion: Zimbabwe at 35 from the formal to the informal economy and implications going forward.
Addressing multitudes of people who attended the event, Elijah Mutemeri, the National Coordinator of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said the persistent de-industrialisation which has hit the country has seen up to 400 workers being laid off.
“Each and every Thursday, we are retrenching between 300 and 400 workers. These are being offloaded into the informal sector,” he said.
According to Sub-Saharan Standards, Zimbabwe inherited a developed economy from its colonial masters and evidently the government of the day has bungled to safeguard the dual economy acquired from the British rule.
Speaking at the same event Dr Godfrey Kanyenze, the co-ordinating committee member of Alternatives to Neo- Liberalism in Southern Africa said employment creation opportunities in the Rhodesian era were way better than those in the present day Zimbabwe.
“We are 35 years after attaining independence and we are way below the colonial period in terms of employment creation,” said Dr Kanyenze adding that currently there is no employment creation to talk of in Zimbabwe.
The massive and persistent deindustrialisation which has become a norm in the country has propelled the employment statistics to plunge into deep by 4% from 7%.
In his latest budget presentation Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa revealed that 4,610 jobs were lost between 2011 and 2014.
The recent Labour Force Survey indicated that the country has a staggering 94.5% informalisation and a trifling 5.5% in the formal sector.
Mr. Vince Museve, who was also part of the panel, blasted the government and its “grey hair” leaders for failing the nation.
“Government does not have time to sit down and craft policies that will benefit future generations.
“The old people in power are not interested about the future of the country because many of them won’t be around for long,” said Museve.
