Harare (New Ziana) – President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday said the current Covid-19 outbreak has brought to the fore the need to put in place safety nets for workers, particularly those in the informal sector who are hard hit by effects of the nationwide lockdown.
Zimbabwe has a huge informal sector which employs millions whose incomes have been affected by the five week lockdown.
Because of this, President Mnangagwa said government policies should be biased towards protecting workers from this sector.
“While the global focus may be on workers in formal employment, our own peculiar economic circumstances require that we place greater focus on small-to-medium enterprises, and on the broad informal sector. These sub-sectors have sustained the greater number of national livelihoods as our nation battles myriad adversities, whether natural or man-made. This means our programmes aimed at defending and sustaining worker welfare must put these two sub-sectors at the heart of our policies. Already, government has decided to include special, well-tailored packages for SMEs and the informal sector in its overall post-Covid-19 stimulus recovery measures which I shall announce shortly,” he said.
“The Covid-19 global pandemic has been a wake-up call, which has shaken us all out of complacency. As a long-term measure against any such pandemics in future, we have to reorganize our SMEs and informal markets, large and small, so that both are public health-compliant. That means spacing units and markets in line with requirements of public health standards which must become a mandatory part of all our human activity and settlements. This is one big take-away from the pandemic, and one with a direct bearing on the worker.”
He said this in his Workers’ Day message to workers.
President Mnangagwa said this years’ Worker’s Day came at a time when Zimbabwe and the world at large was under siege from the deadly Coronavirus which has infected over 3 million people worldwide.
“I address you at a time when labour relations and labour protection have assumed grave,life threatening dimensions worldwide. Whereas in the past we used to worry about fair wages for a day’s work, or worry about skills and unemployment; yes, worry about the life of a worker beyond its active, productive phase, that is, in retirement, today we face a menace of unimaginable proportions.
“We face an overbearing global threat from a highly infectious, contagious disease we now know as Coronavirus. The pandemic continues to blight millions of lives, claiming hundreds of thousands worldwide. As I address you, more than 3.2 million cases have been reported worldwide; and of these, over 225 000 have since succumbed. Recoveries stand at slightly over 1 million worldwide. What breaks my heart is that many from these staggering numbers of infections and deaths draw from the global workforce, prominently our workers in the health sector,” he said.
“As your President, I wake up every morning, agonising over the daunting prospect of an ailing workforce, or to a frightful, yet real grim chance of one more worker, having succumbed to the pandemic. We have to avoid this at all cost. We cannot afford any more loss of life than we have already borne. This is why your Government has had to take very tough, yet unavoidable measures, to safeguard life. Those measures may have brought our Nation to a complete standstill, and our economy to virtual shutdown.
“The challenges for you, our workers, and for your families, have grown bigger and harsher. You have had to endure them with utmost pain. There is more to the virus in relation to the worker. Not only has it stolen more lives, but daily threatens your jobs and thus your livelihoods. Families are in distress, as is also our entire economy. The greater part of the workforce stays at home, often without income. By extension, social life has been on total lockdown, making life very difficult for everyone. I empathise greatly, but dread the inevitable horror of any let up. We have to stay the course until we flatten the curve, slow down the spread, and eventually overtake the pandemic.”
President Mnangagwa acknowledged that due to economic hardships, government was finding it difficult to safeguard its worker’s wages from the ravages of inflation, but said it remained committed to supporting and sustaining workers.
“Since last year, government has continued to adjust your earnings, with a view to making them living wages. Yet the goal of taming inflation and the general cost of living, has largely remained elusive, an ungraspable mirage, elusive because of the successive droughts which continue to visit us, making our nation a net importer of food, elusive because of punitive illegal sanctions which continue to beset us, closing possibilities for our economy. And now, even more elusive, because of the global Covid-19 pandemic which has thrown us and the rest of the world, off rail, into a severe recession,” he said.
He said government would focus on resuscitating the agriculture sector, which is the biggest employer of Zimbabwe’s workforce to ensure food-security.
He said this would be done through a number of initiatives, including smart agriculture, Presidential Input Support Scheme and a greater thrust on irrigation development, to ensure jobs in the agricultural sector are secured and expanded.
“We must step up irrigation, both small and large-scale, for climate-proofed agriculture, and thus create jobs. We have targeted 80 000 hectares for irrigation under A2, and another 20 000 hectares under A1 and for Communal Areas,” he said.
Apart from agriculture, the President said, the mining sector was also key to overall job-creation in the country.
“Even at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, we shielded this critical sector which kept many families going and our economy afloat. As with agriculture, there is lots of self-employment, principally in the subsector of artisanal mining. Now that security concerns in that sub-sector have been stabilized, government will move resolutely to ensure clearer claims and mining rights, and to support artisanal miners financially, technologically and by way of better marketing mechanisms, especially in the area of gold production.”
To ensure greater security and satisfaction of workers, President Mnangagwa said a paradigm shift in respect of worker welfare had become urgent.
“We must think beyond wages,” he said.
“Every employer, in whatever sector of our economy, must and should think beyond the weekly or monthly wage. Over the years, we have realized how easily erodible wages are, especially in times of economic shocks, destabilizations and instability. Now we have this new, dreadful factor of a global viral pandemic. Clearly, the years ahead show all these as the conditioning norm for global businesses, in which case we are best advised to cushion the worker through a more resilient, shock-proof system of reward and resilience. The bottom-line is that the worker must have food, shelter, and must be able to afford health services, while being able to send his/her children to school. This, dear compatriots, must be the new thrust and ethic for us all, whatever sector we play in.”
He added: “We must ensure our workplaces meet WHO public health standards. No sector or sub-sector must be exempt from this requirement which must be enforced both in the interest of workers, and that of greater society. Going forward, public heath yardstick will be foremost in the way we organize our business, all business premises and work stations.”
“Second, we must ensure proper personal protection equipment and facilities at all workstations. Again, this must be in line with WHO standards which our health inspectors must enforce vigorously. The health inspector shall be a key persona in industrial relations, and at all places of work which must be repurposed towards public health exigencies and goals,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said a well-housed workforce was also an important aspect in fighting against epidemics and pandemics, while public utilities must also meet set health standards.
“Good, well-spaced residential housing scheme is the best panacea against diseases. In saying this, I am not shooting down high-rise residential projects; rather, I am emphasizing that such housing schemes should not translate into untidy, overcrowded and unhygienic settlements devoid of proper public spaces, adequate amenities and recreational spaces and facilities.”
New Ziana
