Zimbabwe workers have vowed to continue fighting to be paid in United States dollars despite a government move to outlaw multi-currency regime which effectively ended the official use of the greenback in the country.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union, (ZCTU) president Peter Mutasa accused the government of repeatedly lying to the nation citing Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube’s assurance that the Zimbabwean dollar will only be issued once macro-economic fundamentals are in place.
“Before banning the US dollar, Mthuli had assured the nation a day before that the Zimbabwean dollar will only be introduced when macro-economic fundamentals are in place.
“The government has been taking its people for granted for quite some time now, when it introduced bond notes in 2016 that they were adequately back by lines of credit from the AFREXIM Bank,” said Mutasa.
“Clearly in all records, the working people of Zimbabwe have lost substantial value in their earnings as they work in the fast depreciating RTGS,” said Mutasa.
The combative trade unionist vowed to proceed with the demand for workers to be remunerated in US dollars saying the Statutory Instrument 142 of 2019 will not be an impediment to their push for better working conditions.
The scrapping of the multi-currency regime by government is widely believed to have been a calculated move to pre-empty civil servants’ demand for US dollar salaries, something the Finance minister Prof Ncube openly said was unsustainable.
Yesterday, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya told the parliamentary committee on Finance and Economic Development that the multi-currency regime had outlived its purpose and was responsible for the economic problems currently facing the country.
