Since
last month’s Supreme Court ruling allowing employers to lay-off employees with
three months’ notice over 20 000 workers have been fired in three weeks, with
thousands more now in the pipe line. Of course the nation has reason to be
alarmed!
Laying-off
workers is cause for concern for any nation but for a nation like Zimbabwe with
unemployment rate already 90% plus any laid-off worker is a tragic loss. The 20
000 laid-off workers in themselves are a drop in the ocean of 4 million or so
unemployed the real impact is felt by the hundreds of thousands other people
who were depending of each one of these workers directly or indirectly.
No
one will dispute that the wholesale laying-off of workers demanded now more
than ever that something is done and fast to stop this haemorrhaging of the
very few remaining jobs in a country. But, as is always the case in desperate
situations like this, demanding something be done is the easy bit; naming the
right “something” is the billion dollar challenge!
After
weeks of twiddling their thumbs and wringing their fingers, the Zanu PF
government has finally decided to act. Mugabe has recalled parliament to debate
a bill to stop employers firing workers. The proposed bill will say "no
employer shall terminate a contract of employment on notice unless the employer
and employee mutually agree in writing to the termination of the
contract."
Coming
up with the right solution is the challenge but trust Mugabe to come up with a
really stupid solution guaranteed to make the country’s economic situation
worse and not better!
No employer will engage
a worker for the sole pleasure of laying-off the worker tomorrow; surely that
has to be the starting point of any meaningful debate on this subject.
If a company is losing
money hand over fist then it is only a matter of time before that company is
forced to close down. Once a company is declared bankrupt it seizes to be an
employer and no state law can force it retain employees and pay them wages. So
companies that could have survived if they could downsize will now be forced
into bankruptcy; in other words the new law will force existing companies to
declare bankruptcy and close, laying-off everyone!
Worse still if it is
near impossible to lay-off a worker, the would be prospective employer will
have to be absolutely certain they need the worker not just for the present but
for years to come before adding them to their books. Unemployment a nauseating
90% plus and therefore should be doing everything possible to encourage new and
existing employers to take on new workers; we are enacting a law tell the
employer take any worker at your own pearl!
Zimbabwe’s economy is in
total meltdown because of decades of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption
and the worst anti-investor laws in the world. Since the 2013 rigged national
elections Mugabe thought he could rig economic recovery with his ZimAsset plan
which sought to throw lots and lots of cash, $27 billion, at the economy
without addressing any of the underlying causes. The economic recovery has not
materialized because Mugabe failed to get any donor to bankroll his hare-brain
plan.
Unemployment is a
nauseating 90%, 76% of our people are living in total abject poverty, etc.
these are the signs proving that Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is real and it is
taking a heavy toll on the nation. The new wave of companies laying-off workers
is just the latest reminder that the situation is getting worse and not better.
We are in this mess
because for decades we have failed to address the underlying causes like corruption
and lawlessness fuelling the economic decline. Passing a law stopping employers
forced to down size because of the worsening economic situation is not going to
revive the economy; we are just kicking the can down the road – the Cul-de-sac.
Mugabe’s stupid law will force company not to downsize but force them go into
bankruptcy instead.
12 comments:
In a ringing endorsement of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, firebrand former Zanu-PF chairperson for Mashonaland West, Temba Mliswa, says the only politician who can take on President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF and win the eagerly-anticipated 2018 national elections is the dogged former prime minister.
Tsvangirai has challenged Mugabe many times in the past and the later has cheated, bribed or bamboozled him every time. Mliswa can say what he pleases but the facts on the ground speak for themselves. After betraying the people by failing to implement even one reform during the GNU any Zimbabwean who vote for Tsvangirai next time will be a fool!
If the truth be told there will be some who will vote for MDC next time; we would not be in this mess if we did not, as a nation, have more than our fair share of fools!
@ Patrick
When it comes to the issue of unity you will never flash it out of the head of people like Alex Magaisa and Conrad Nyamutata just as you will never flash out the idea that sanctions are the cause of Zimbabwe's economic woes. These people have adopted their respective position out of ignorance and so no amount of reason can get them to change their minds.
Mugabe is operating one of the greatest institutionalized looting and plunder operations in human history billions of dollars worth of diamonds are being stolen every week before our own eyes and yet someone still refuse to accept there is corruption.
If push comes to shove one can force Conrad to admit none of the opposition leaders and parties have any policy worth supporting. And yet he will still be calling on the opposition parties to unity! Unity over what, he does not say. To him and many others who think like him being united is more important that knowing where they are going. Indeed if you know where you going he would talk into uniting with those who have no clue where there are going!
Conrad if the opposition have no quality leaders united or divided it does not matter, they will still fall!
@ Member Tshuma
“Its better for the company to close than for it to just fire people randomly in any case why Should they continue to operate if they bankrupt,” you said.
I agree with you 100% it would be better for the company to close than to allow it to fire workers willy-nilly or worse still if they are corrupt. If the company is bankrupt then of course it has no choice but to close down.
Unemployment was already 90% plus before the 17 July 2015 Supreme Court judgement allowing employers to fire workers “willy-nilly” as some people now claim. In other words companies were closing down and laying-off workers already and so we must look at the underlying reason why so many companies have closed down and laid off so many workers.
The Zimbabwe economy shrunk a staggering 84% in the six years 2002 to 2008 and has never recovered. If a company is producing less of whatever it is in the business of producing then it must reduce its running costs and that means downsizing or it will be forced to close down com-pletely. The alternative is to do what some parastatals like NRZ, ZISCO and Councils have been doing; keep the workers but pay them nothing for months or even years. Government itself has not paid its foreign embassy staff for months!
What the 17 July 2015 Court ruling did was allow companies to downsize which is a much better way than closing down. Any company that close down is gone my friend.
There is overwhelming evidence here that the national economy is in total meltdown as a result of decades of gross mismanagement, corruption and an economic environment that has made it impossible for every sector of the grow and thrive. This Zanu PF government is responsible and should have done something about these underlying economic problems a long time ago but has done nothing. Companies are in business to make money and not to fire workers it is this regime’s failure to create the economic environment for companies to employ workers to produce and sale goods and services and make money.
Mugabe’s ZimAsset economic recovery plan has failed to create not even one new job out of the 2.2 million he promised in 2013. He is passing this Labour Amendment Bill to please the naive and gullible; this is a cheap political gimmick to benefit the worker in theory but not in practice and with far reaching disastrous economic consequences for the nation at large as would be employers are now loathed to employ anyone under those conditions.
With unemployment a nauseating 90% plus we should have policies encouraging would be employers to start up new business knowing that if they fail they will not be punished for having tried! A bill that say a company cannot downsize in bad times will force many company to be-come bankrupt. What makes this bill even more obnoxious is that it is be passed by the regime responsible for bringing on the bad times.
Lest we forget, the people of Zimbabwe did not elect this Mugabe regime; they rigged the election and imposed themselves on this nation! The regime promised 2.2 million jobs in five years and all it has done so far is preside over company closures and soaring unemployment. This bill will not help Zimbabwe’s worsening economic situation but drag the nation even deeper into this hell!
"We wish to increase the number of police persons so that everyone in any corner of Zimbabwe will not spend two hours trying to find a policeman and fail to get one. This is how I think it should be," said Chihuri.
How many people have reported Zanu PF thuggery to the Police only for them to turn a blind eye to it or worse arrest the victim “for disturbing the peace”! Oh I forget, it is part of the Police’s fight against regime change as you stated in your doctorate thesis!
The ZRP has been corrupted and will need cleaning up starting with idiots like you. Dr Chihuri, my arse!
@ Patrick
The people of Zimbabwe have not taken the business of electing quality leaders with the seriousness and urgency the matter demands and hence the reason the nation is in this political and economic mess and will remain in the mess forever unless we change.
It pays in the end to get the best in the beginning we seem to specialize in getting the worst and have paid dearly for it!
Tsvangirai repeated this as he called on SADC to intervene in Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.
SADC intervene during the GNU years and nothing changed because Tsvangirai failed to implement even one reform. How many times did SADC warn him to implement reforms and he ignored them?
Tsvangirai has lost all political credibility with SADC, Western donors and the Zimbabwe electorate is slowly coming round to the realization that he and his MDC friends sold-out during the GNU. Tsvangirai can ask SADC to intervene until he is blue in the face they will not listen to him. It is good that Tsvangirai is now flip-flopped and will take part in the next by-elections and the world will now see whether he still have any support or not!
The people of Zimbabwe are desperate for change but one hopes not foolish enough to vote for the same village idiot again!
This is just an excuse for firing people; Zanu PF is known for demonising its victims first before it strikes. The regime has to cut its labour force and so it is labelling all those to be fired "opposition supporters" when in reality it is the political patronage system at play.
As the national cake shrinks the selection process of those who will have a piece is being made more and more vigorous, only those with sold links to the top dogs will still have a job after this wave of selection.
@Stix
Stix, we are talking about leaders here, would you rather have quality or quantity.
What Patrick has been saying is quality tramps quantity and I agree with him. If there is no quality then having the quantity will never make up for the lack in quality. On the other hand if there were one or two quality leaders, to force them to unity with those with nothing to offer just for the sake of quantity will be downright stupid.
Surely you are better off with one glass of milk than making up into a gallon with water or worse still cholera contaminated sewage because that is what some of these corrupt and incompetent politicians are. What else would you call people like Tsvangirai or Mugabe but contaminated sewage and cholera contaminated sewage respectively.
Of course if someone thinks it is better to add sewage to a glass of milk for the sake of quantity then, yes they are talking nonsense and must be told to shut up. Yes people have a right to an opinion but not to if that opinion is endangering the wellbeing of others who may not be aware of the health hazards of drinking sewage.
Indeed one gallon of milk plus one spoon sewage is a gallon of sewage!
So the bottom line therefore is we must concern ourselves with quality and let quantity follow; those concentrate on quantity will in the end up losing all the quality they might otherwise obtain if they had not allowed themselves to be distracted by quantity.
@ Patrick
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest,” said Adam Smith.
What Adam Smith said about the butcher, the brewer and the baker is correct although, I am sure, he would also agree that all these hardnosed self-serving economic disciples’ self-interest was tempered by their cus-tomers’ self-interests too. For the butcher knows that his/her prosperity is intrinsically linked with him/her continuing to serve the customers meat of the quality and price they like especially if there are other butch-ers competing with him/her.
So although the sentiment the customer is king will never drown the butcher’s self-interest in force him to supply us dinner it is nonetheless the knowledge that the customer can go to someone else that stops him selling donkey meat as beef!
Whilst one can say about the politician what Adam Smith said about the butcher one has to say the politician have often sold donkey meat as beef before the people had no clue as to how to distinguish one from the other.
Zanu PF, MDC, NCA and all the other political parties in Zimbabwe know the electorate are naïve and gullible and find the promise of economic prosperity offered by the proposed bill irresistible and that is all they care about and understand. The fact that the bill will force companies to close without paying them the huge severance package is another story they do not want to hear nor care to understand.
The Zimbabwean voters are so naïve and gullible the politicians know they only have to make their promised package as attractive as possible, hence NCA promising to back date the payments to 1980, to win the people’s support and votes.
Zimbabwe will never get out of this hell-hole the nation is in until we get quality leaders and we will never get such leaders as long as we continue to have a naïve and gullible electorate. For 35 years Mugabe has promised the nation one empty promise after another and for 35 years the people have failed to hold him to account. Now the voters judge the politicians on the basis of who makes the most extravagant promise! Is it any wonder then that we are in a mess!
Poor David Chapfika (Mutoko South MP) he has grasped the essence of the argument but is failing to express it. “I do not think that anyone is against protecting the worker, but the constitutionality of the issue must also be observed."
It is not the constitutionality of this bill which is at issue here it is the fallacy that the law will in anyway “protect the worker”. How can the law protect the worker by forcing the employers out of business and close down? If we have no business there will be no employers or employees!
This labour amendment law is the last straw that will break the backs of the tiny number of camels still standing in Zimbabwe!
Mugabe will have a rare state of the nation address next Tuesday.
No wonder is holding the rosary, if there was a time the nation needed a miracle it is now!
He wants the looting and plunder in Marange to continue and yet he also wants the economic meltdown to stop such is the conflict in the tyrant's mind! The whole Zanu PF charade is blowing in his face, there is real nothing Mugabe can do now. We will have regime change, of that we can be certain!
In a statement, the Botswana government said: "… there is need for an independent audit of the just-concluded electoral process in Zimbabwe. Such an audit will shed light on the conduct of the just-ended election and indicate any shortcomings and irregularities that could have affected its result, as well as the way forward."
Botswana did not have wish to have Zimbabwe’s 2013 elections audited but now with the country holding the chairmanship of SADC there is nothing stopping her stamping her mark on the region. We need to get out of this mess and need leaders with the vision and courage to take the bull by the horn and set a new course!
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