“For me it is better to sleep in the park and only go home when I am off duty,” said Munyaradzi Rombe of Chitungwiza who earns less than $200 a month.
The poverty datum line is well above $500. Rombe is not alone as several other security guards sleep in the park.
“I do not have a home here so I live here,” said John Motsi who comes from Murewa.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union has encouraged the security guards to form a union to protect their rights in a country where more than 80percent of the people are unemployed.
“The security guards are the least paid and organised,” said the ZCTU secretary general Japhet Moyo. “We have sourced money for them to form a union.”
He said the guards, who were often unskilled and uneducated, were being taken advantage of because they were not aware of their rights. Harare has witnessed a mushrooming of security companies owned by black Zimbabweans.
Moyo said it was unfortunate that blacks were exploiting their own because of economic hard ships. Zimbabwe joined the world in commemorating workers day on May 01.
Post published in: News