Pay day woes
April 30th, 2008
We asked a colleague to write us a post about payday. This is his story.
Today is pay day.
I received a gross wage of just under $860 million. I also received benefits being $400 million dollars as a transport allowance and $67 million as a housing allowance. These benefits were awarded by the government as some sort of assistance towards the rising inflation. Gross earnings approx. $1,3 billion.
I then pay tax on these earnings (including the benefits calculated at a rate of 47.5%). I then have further ‘government’ deductions being aids levy, national employment council and national social security authority.
I don’t know where this money goes or what it is used for, but I pay it. At the end of all this, I receive less than half of my earnings – approx $690 million. It’s the old story of half for me and half for bob.
Transport would cost me $50 million one way – $100 million per day to get to work and back home again. So my $400 million allowance, less the 47.5% tax that I pay on it, covers less than two days transport costs.
I cannot afford this so I rise at 4.30am and walk to work. The walk back home means my day ends at 8.30pm.
This is what inflation has done.
I rent one room in a house which is shared with my wife and my young daughter. We share a communal bathroom and kitchen with other lodgers. The current rent for this room is $300 million dollars a month. I have looked around for a cheaper accommodation alternative but there isn’t any. My housing allowance was $67million, less 47.5% tax = $35 million. I will pay the rent today and will be left with $390 million dollars.
This is what inflation has done.
Today a loaf of bread costs $100 million. A litre of milk, also $100 million. 10kg of mealie meal is now $500 million. The new notes that we have only had for a few weeks are already useless. I am a working man, and yet I need to live off the charity of my family who have fled to South Africa. It is hard to accept this assistance as I am very proud, but you see that I have no choice.
It is soul-destroying.
It is degrading.
I am very tired of this government. We have now proved that democracy ‘mugabe-style’ does not work in our country.
Today I read that 10 people have been killed since elections in the violence. This is nothing compared to the people who are dying of sickness and starvation – I am one of the 20% of people who are employed and I am still living on the handouts of others.
We are all suffering. There is no way that this torture can be justified – by the regime or those who are helping to delay the inevitable.
April 30th, 2008 16:33
Mugabe’s whole regime is propped up at the moment by printing money to pay his police and army. Cut the supply of paper, ink and technology to print his money and the mercenaries in his security forces will no longer support him. The Roman army kept the empire safe as long as they were paid. No pay, no empire ! I do not know if this too simplistic or even if this is possible, but I believe it would work fantastically in Zimbabwe if possible. I do not know enough about, how the supply and process of printing money, in Zimbabwe, works. Maybe an informed person could enlighten us as to how the money supply works and whether money printing supplies are imported.
April 30th, 2008 17:23
Believe me, I feel for you. Tyrant Bob has removed your wealth, your food, and even your right to be alive. Bob and his people care nothing for you or your family. Get your family to a place of safety where they can survive and then go get rid of Bob. Everyone is saying give it time…that will only prolong the agony and misery and increase the death toll and Bob’s vice grip. You got rid of tyranny in the 1970′s and you can do it again, only this time the price will be MUCH higher. The rest of the planet will do nothing for you except talk, including your “friends” to the north, south, east and west of you. In the meantime the good people of Zim will continue to be destroyed. You apparently represent more than 50% of the total population. I suggest not waiting until you have no hope of success. A famous American once said…”Give me liberty or give me death.” Life without liberty IS death.
April 30th, 2008 17:28
The following just in…Zimbabwe’s currency had gotten to the point last year it was actually worth less than toilet paper. Current value is less than USED toilet paper. Who are they kidding?
HARARE (Thomson Financial) – Zimbabwe has decided to float its local currency on foreign exchange markets in an attempt to eliminate speculation on the black market, the governor of the Central Bank said on Wednesday.
‘The Reserve Bank has with immediate effect introduced a willing buyer-willing seller priority-focused twinning arrangement in the foreign exchange market,’ governor Gideon Gono said at a press briefing.
tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com
April 30th, 2008 17:33
Off the point but dont know how else to do this. SW Radio reporting ugly orchestrated attack on a farm in Matabeleland taking place now. Anybody able to do anything?
April 30th, 2008 17:59
Hi Bugs,
Probably not. As with most tyrants, uncle bob called in all private citizens firearms with very few exceptions (remember they were all “properly registered”). That led to the murder of over 20,000 Ndebele in ’82…the ones that helped put bob in power. If you don’t have the right to the means to defend yourself then you no longer have the right to defend yourself and, therefore, have forfeited the right to life itself. That simple. I wish the people on that farm well but there isn’t anything anyone can or will do about it. Zimbabwe is, quite simply, hostage to uncle bob.
April 30th, 2008 18:21
I wonder how there can be 28 year old “war veterans” in Zimbabwe who fought the liberation war prior to 1980. These were not even “baby soldiers” at the time.
If anything, any war veteran less than 45 years old is simply a joker, otherwise Sekuru Mugabe must quized for using child soldiers duing the Chimurenga!
April 30th, 2008 18:48
The regime is benefiting so much from repatriations of those in diaspora. I suggest encouraging people out there to send only foodstuffs and other supplies and foreign currency only as a last resort so that none of our hard-worked for money continues to be abused repressing our families. I have got more ideas about how to make this scheme work with minimal negative impact to the people in Zim.
April 30th, 2008 20:03
Is it possible in Zim to have a net salary of $25 Billion?
April 30th, 2008 21:41
Having read all the above, how can a man do this to its land and people. He must be tried now for this injustice and as someone else mentioned before on this blog, his legacy is evil and that he will be remembered for. He is busy eradicating all the MDC supporters so he can win the election, what a crazy man ? Can Mr Mbeki agree with this ? How can these people sleep at night ? It makes me wonder what we may be facing in SA in the near future.
May 1st, 2008 02:25
Just to put it into perspective for visitors to this page who have never seen africa…
The starving does not only apply to little 6 year old children. These are grown adults starving too.
My family, who are white, are also on the bones of their ass.
We live in North America and we pay for part of their helps pay. Every month we send food and clothes just to help them along. A bag of candy puts smiles all around for weeks.
This is affecting the entire country, not just some.
May 1st, 2008 10:37
The current rate of the Zim dollar to the pound is 360M, hey?
At the Reserve Bank it is 60K.
Check my maths. That means 5 pounds buys 15 loaves of bread if you are povo, and 1 mercedes-benz if you are a chef.
Money is the crux of all of this. These chefs and their hangers-on couldn’t get a real job. A lot of people who seem successful now will not be able to survive when they have to do a day’s work for a day’s pay (not that I feel sorry for them).
What amazes me is why some people bother to go to work. But there we have it. I know some countries to the north went through periods when a university lecturer’s salary was worth one chicken. And the university still functioned – not as well as they should or could – but they functioned.
People always tell the story about the gap, unfortunately – what didn’t happen – rather than what did happen – and what we learned from that.
I know that I learned heaps and heaps at UZ because I had to teach stuff that wasn’t my field and I had to get on and do it.
Now I go to conferences in developed countries where the keynote speech is stuff we were teaching students 15 years ago. It is amazing – you can see most of the audience is hearing it for the first time – and I am sitting thinking – you had all these libraries and facilities – what have you been doing all this time?
We should look for lessons in what we get right , celebrate the Zim spirit, and build on it.
I am collecting stories, pictures, under a general title of “Resilient Zim” – so if you have any, point me to them please! One day, maybe we can make scrapbook of the zim spirit.
May 1st, 2008 14:01
ZANU is obviously planning to announce a re-run date at a timing that will least suit the MDC. Whilst we do not want to have a re-run, the reality is its going to happen. People better start planning to take measures to ensure that there are as many observers as possible from soon after the announcement lasting through the post election period.
May 1st, 2008 14:40
Va Mugabe
Va Mugabe kana makateerera tinzwirewo tsitsi veduwe. Tanzwa. Tinoziva kuti mugona kuuraya munhu wese munyika menyu. Imi makaguta hamudi kuti tigutewo here nhaye vasekuru… Siyakucela baba Mugabe. Sizwele nathi bakithi. Indlala isisiphethe. Sifuna impilo egcono hayi i sovereignty.. HOPE HE (MUGABE) WILL UNDERSTAND. I HAVE PUT IT IN VENECULAR. I KNOW HE IS ONLINE RIGHT NOW..
May 1st, 2008 14:56
Ha ha 4th chimurenga,
Our old man is smart but I don’t think he is computer literate. Maybe some CIO operative is sitting there compiling a report (hello there, how are you doing?) but not the old man! Internet savvy is not the ZPF forte.
To js, on another thread, that is really good work. Those container numbers are important. Someone can confirm those containers have arrived.
If you can, take a picture of the container, the numbers, the seal, and the transport carrier that delivers. If not just memorize the details and pass them along.
Who has read the story on the new forex system? That is interesting – who will trust government enough to trade with them? And if the big chefs can’t by cheap currency so easily, will they hang around?
Or do they intend to bring their currency home, get a good price,then tomorrow, reverse the system again? My suspicious mind!
May 1st, 2008 15:18
Any economics guru to shed more light on the issue.. Does it mean the exchange rate is now controlled by the prevailing market forces? Does it now mean that one can go to bank to change their forex at the normal prevailing rates? Is RBZ involved at all in this suspicious monetary policy…
May 1st, 2008 15:19
The forex thing is obviously a smoke screen. How are those quotas, on the demand side going to be managed and who decides who gets what and how much to bid for it? Be warned!
May 1st, 2008 15:34
I will leave the economics issue for bankers and economists to explain -
reconciliation? IMHO the onus must be on the aggressor to seek reconciliation – or sweat it worrying about the next knock on the door.
For me, I think there is only one person who can protect democracy, fairness and justice. That is me. And if I am you, then it is you. We will get as much democracy as we insist upon every day of our lives.
If there is one child in Zimbabwe not school, I must be as horrified as if it is my child. It there is one mother without a midwife, I must think that is my daughter, etc etc.
I would like to see the news begin each day with proper facts.
1234 houses got electricity for the first time today
6 villages got a borehole today – that is 753 since Christmas
ZWD were paid in taxes today
57 businesses paid tax for the first time
13456 young people signed their apprenticeships today
We paid this much in electricity to SA today. We paid this much forex for aviation fuel today. Some transparency so we can ask questions.
When we move on, those of us who have got used to internet should continue making sure real-time facts and figures are available to anyone who can get to a computer And $100 computers for rural schools – they work without phone lines – the signal goes from computer to computer and they get power from being wound up.
No more coverups and secret deals for chefs!
May 1st, 2008 19:15
This inflation is what happened in Germany before Hitler came to power. Zimbabwe, please be careful who you choose to lead you out, and who you keep!
Is there anything we can do? What should we be exhorting our governments to do? Are there charities that will get food and/or hard currency to you? How free is the banking system?
May 1st, 2008 19:41
Zim currency is printed in GERMANY by the same printer that printed Rhodesian currency. Angela Merkel could stop the export of paper currecny if she wanted to.
May 2nd, 2008 15:35
I agree Cato. I think that stopping the printed paper money is a way to go to stop mercenary support for ZANU-PF. If Germany’s councillor, Angela Merkel, could stop the supply route, then we could set up a petition for her to stop the paper money supply. We would also, then, need her contact details and a valid means to petition her ! Do you know how to do this ?
May 3rd, 2008 07:49
I have heard stories of extreme hunger. (eating bark to survive). Does anyone know of reputable and trustworthy organisations already working in Zimbabwe? Is there any way of us getting some sort of help to the people on the ground who are hungry and have no family outside Zim to help them? Please if someone could help me with this information, I would love to help in some way.
May 3rd, 2008 10:49
Sorry…typo. I meant ‘aid organisations’
May 3rd, 2008 23:11
I have the contact details for Angela Merkel. You will find them HERE.
In the top right hand corner you will see a box marked Kontakt. There is a link to an email form….don’t have her actual email address. My German contact suggested to email AND write a regular letter. I’m not sure the correct way to address her….anyone know?
April 30th, 2008 17:14
[...] Pay day in Zimbabwe: “Today is pay day. I received a gross wage of just under $860 million. I also received benefits being $400 million dollars as a transport allowance and $67 million as a housing allowance. These benefits were awarded by the government as some sort of assistance towards the rising inflation. Gross earnings approx. $1,3 billion.” Posted by Ndesanjo Macha Share This [...]
May 1st, 2008 16:26
[...] In Zimbabwe… Today a loaf of bread costs $100 million. A litre of milk, also $100 million. 10kg of mealie meal is now $500 million. The new notes that we have only had for a few weeks are already useless. I am a working man, and yet I need to live off the charity of my family who have fled to South Africa. It is hard to accept this assistance as I am very proud, but you see that I have no choice. Filed under: Uncategorized — cleek @ 10:26 am [...]
May 5th, 2008 19:41
[...] approx. $1,3 billion. […] The current rent for this room is $300 million dollars a month. Luxusprobleme? Leider [...]
May 6th, 2008 13:53
[...] no mitatitra ao amin'ny blaogy This is Zimbabwe momba ny zava-misy amin'ny andro fandraisan-karama any Zimbaboe : Today is pay day. I received a gross wage of just under $860 million. I also [...]