Mugabe, the nation’s slave-master

The efforts made by Mugabe’s government to deal with the economic situation in Zimbabwe are baffling. It’s like watching two passenger airplanes, piloted by chimps, about to collide in mid-air. The imminent disaster and consequences for all those passengers is clear to see, but no parachutes, nowhere to go, all of us hostages to incompetence and recklessness.

Last week Robert Mugabe “invoked the special Presidential Powers Act which gives his government the right to approve all salary and price rises”. This is where he ‘rules by decree’, waves a wand and subjects the entire nation to his will without any recourse to any democratic measures.

“No one in private or public sectors can now raise salaries, wages, rents, service charges, prices and school fees on account of increases or anticipated increases in the consumer price index, the official and unofficial exchange rates or value-added tax and duty” (via Reuters)

A couple of days prior to this a friend and I had been discussing wages in Zimbabwe; in particular, domestic worker wages. It was recently announced that domestic workers would now earn a new minimum wage of Z$120,000 a month - gazetted by government and back payable to end of April, if I remember correctly. The highest paid domestic worker will get Z$142,336 a month.

Domestic workers are outraged (via SW Radio Africa).

At the time my friend and I were chatting about this, the black market exchange rate was Z$480,000 to 1 British pound; about half that to 1 USD; about Z$32,000 to 1 Rand; and Z$46,000 to 1 Botswanan Pula. (These are approximate figures because the rate changes so fast all the time).

We worked out that it meant the highest paid Zimbabwean domestic workers would earn the equivalent of approximately 29p a month; the lowest paid domestic worker will earn about 25p.

The basic pay for teachers is around Z$2,9 million with a net pay of around Z$2,5million after deductions - or about £5 a month.

And now Mugabe - using Presidential Powers that allow him to do whatever he likes - says no one can raise wages or salaries.

The ‘lucky’ domestic workers will continue to earn 29p a month, in an economy which is so bad they have no option but to work hard, for nothing. Too poor and too desperate to turn down a job.

As far as I am concerned, this means Mugabe has gone from being a ‘liberator’ to a ’slave-master’.

The economy in Zimbabwe is baffling, so to put it in context you need to think about the battles commuter taxi drivers are having at the moment. In Harare, they charge between Z$40,000 and Z$50,000 for a journey (or, between 8p and 10p). And that means a domestic worker, if they saved all their wages and didn’t eat or clothe their children or pay for medical bills, could afford a sum total of about 3 trips in a taxi a month.

Is it a living wage if your entire monthly income equates to three local trips in taxi?

The government is trying to force commuter drivers to drop their fares to between Z$10,000 and Z$15,000 - or 2p and 3p. This would make it marginally better for domestic workers who could then afford 10 journeys in a taxi per month if they spent their entire monthly income on travel.

Is it a living wage if your entire monthly income bought you 10 trips in a taxi? How does this make anything better at all?

The government apologists may argue this is a good effort, but the reality and lunacy is clearly revealed by one thing; and that is that the cost of commuter taxis, the cost of industry and just about everything, is heavily influenced by the price of fuel. Zimbabwe does not produce its own fuel, which means it has to be bought using foreign currency.

Robert Mugabe may be able to use force and violence and intimidation to drive down prices in Zimbabwe, but his Presidential Powers are fairly ‘powerless’ beyond the Zimbabwean borders? Is he going to bully Mbeki into doing the same in SA? Commuter fares have to pay for their fuel; garage owners have to buy their fuel in foreign currency and sell it on for a profit. You can see what happens fairly easily.

Now I know this next point is completely meaningless because countries vary so widely, but I was curious, since I’ve been working in pounds and pence here, to see what a gallon of fuel cost in the UK. According to this website today, the cheapest fuel in Essex, London is 50.4p a gallon.

So 1 gallon of fuel in the Uk is worth more than a month’s salary, if you were a highly paid domestic worker.

If you’re living in the UK, think about that as you fill your car today. The figures flying up on the filling-machine representing months and then years of a Zimbabwean domestic worker’s wages. Isn’t what Mugabe has done completely horrific!?

It’s just a brain-twisting exercise and even though I’ve tried to figure it out a bit, even I don’t fully grasp the horrendous complexity of the mess this government has made of our economy. All I can tell you, is that I have a sick gut-twisting certainty that the majority of us will be starving to death unless some kind of sanity prevails somewhere.

Mugabe has created a nation of slaves, all of whom he seems to think should subject themselves to his lunatic whims.

It’s completely unforgivable.

Correction: A British reader has corrected my British comparison - see this comment here - and its even worse than I thought.

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe, Mugabe, fuel, economy, shortages, corruption, inflation, hyper-inflation, price-control, poverty

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