Zimbabwe’s monumental hyperinflation has seen the local currency become completely valueless and widespread dollarisation is already in place in almost all sectors of the economy. But the drastic move, which has confirmed Zimbabwe’s status as a failed state, is set to become official when acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa announces the budget next Thursday.
According to reports, the government plans to raise revenue by proposing the payment of taxes in foreign currency, a move which experts say will officially dollarise the economy. But how this would be possible, when most people still only earn Zim dollars, has not been fully explained. The country’s armed forces are still being paid in the worthless local dollar, resulting in a growing number of strikes and increased lawlessness from Robert Mugabe’s once loyal uniformed men.
Last year saw a number of unprecedented riots involving soldiers, who looted shops and attacked foreign currency dealers after not being able to access their money from cash strapped banks. The past few weeks have seen more spontaneous protests across the country by angry and impatient soldiers, raisings fears of a possible mutiny. On Tuesday, a gang of 15 armed soldiers looted the shop of an MDC MP in Harare, and made off with more than R6000 worth of goods. The gang reportedly told the shocked shop attendant that they were ‘hungry’ because they hadn’t been paid in foreign currency. The attack came just days after a separate uniformed gang, wielding the same excuse, raided a farm belonging to Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and forced farm workers to load their truck with chickens.
At the same time, doctors, nurses and teachers have already been on strike for several months demanding the payment of their salaries in forex. State medical staff are the only group so far that has been offered foreign currency payments, after the government received a financial bailout package from the United Nations. The government recently turned down a similar rescue package that would have seen teachers being paid in foreign cash, and teachers have since vowed not to return to work until their demands for monthly salaries of more than US$2000 are met. The strike is likely set to further delay the already postponed opening of schools for the new year, and teachers’ union officials have said the education sector is not ready for the 2009 academic year.
The ongoing strike by teachers and health workers has since been joined by strikes from other working groups, including railway workers in Bulawayo and municipal workers in Harare. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has previously warned that more strikes were imminent; saying the continued payment of workers’ salaries in local currency was ‘unbearable’. The union has been pushing for wage negotiations to be conducted in foreign currency and has warned the working sector ‘will withdraw its labour’ if there is no change.
Meanwhile, maintenance workers from the Zimbabwe National Water Authority
(ZINWA) have also downed tools this week over their appalling working conditions, that have left them vulnerable to the devastating cholera outbreak. The workers went on strike on Monday after their employer failed to provide them with proper protective clothing, despite the cholera epidemic that has left close to 3000 people dead, according to official figures. The water-borne disease is highly contagious and in a country with a collapsed health system, exposure to unclean, contaminated water can mean a death sentence.
SWRadio Africa