Zimbabwe’s Workers Fight For Higher Salaries

Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, has been the setting of many protests including current workers’ protests and past protests against former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. (Wikimedia Commons)

Government workers flooded the streets of Zimbabwe on November 6 to protest their disproportionately low salaries. The average pay for government employees is currently below the poverty line. Though acknowledging the crisis, the government claimed that a lack of funding prevents the implementation of any raises.

Zimbabwe’s economy has faced an unemployment rate higher than 90 percent and a widespread shortage of goods. Due to the economic instability, public workers barely survive off the little income they receive.

New protesters joined the many doctors already fighting for higher pay and lower inflation, pressing the Ministry of Finance to change the country’s currency to American dollars. These doctors, many of whom have already lost their jobs, have been shaking up the medical system for almost two months. 

The secretary of the Apex Council, which leads a large labor union representing civil servants in Zimbabwe, said, “We are dying and we are dying slowly. Even others who were supposed to march with us in solidarity cannot come. I don’t know what we should do. I think our conversations must now be around what is it we should do as workers in this country. Our situation is dire.” Many have equated public service positions to slavery. 

As the government searches for solutions, many lack the opportunity to buy basic needs. With rising gas and goods prices, the majority of public workers are on the brink of or already are living in poverty. President Emmerson Mnangagwa is struggling to live up to his promise to restore the economy after its collapse. In light of workers’ grievances, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said, “The budget cycle is coming to an end and that is difficult to get additional resources from the current budget... a review in the cost of living [is] definite in 2020.”