Harare - Pressure groups in Zimbabwe want President Robert Mugabe to speedily resign and rein in corruption or face the risk of crippling protests in an already struggling economy.
Protests rolled out across the country on Wednesday, jolting Mugabe’s government, which immediately announced that teachers would receive their salaries yesterday and those in the health services sector today, according to some of the protest organisers.
Data showed yesterday that as many as 19 companies closed down in the first three months of this year, while about 1 000 workers lost their jobs.
Civil servants also downed tools on Wednesday in protest over delayed salaries, following demonstrations in Beitbridge over import restrictions and in Harare over police roadblocks earlier in the week.
Dire situation
Promise Mkwananzi, the spokesman of the Tajamuka (we have had enough) campaign involving various civic society organisations, said yesterday that Mugabe should explain the country’s dire economic situation by the end of August and speedily resign.
“By August 31, Mugabe must have spoken about the crisis in Zimbabwe. He must deliver a clear timeline and indicate when he will resign,” he said.
The campaign, which has relied on social media to spread its messages, also wants the government to abandon its plans to introduce local bond notes in October.
Businesses resumed normal operations yesterday, while economic activity also resumed, although state media reported that it had been “business as usual” despite the nationwide protests.
The bond notes, which the government says are backed by a $200 million (R3 billion) facility from African Export-Import Bank, have been criticised by the business community and ordinary citizens who fear that this could be the precursor to the re-introduction of the Zim dollar.
Zimbabwe, currently battling a cash crunch and declining economic productivity, is using a multiple currency regime hedged around the US dollar. However, the country is now decrying over reliance on the greenback, saying it is making the country highly uncompetitive, prompting job losses and company closures.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said a total of six companies were placed under judicial management, while 13 were liquidated during the first quarter of 2016. Economists said more companies had closed down, but were not reflected in the current statistics, because of the informal nature of the economy.
“During the first quarter of 2016, a total of 949 retrenchments were witnessed. The majority of companies cited restructuring and downsizing as reasons for retrenchments, while other reasons… were viability challenges, redundancy, judicial management, rationalisation and outright closures,” the central bank said in its latest quarterly review report.
Economic difficulties have plunged industry capacity utilisation to below 40 percent.
Protest groups have pledged more demonstrations in Zimbabwe, saying this was the only way that the government would heed the concerns of Zimbabweans over the mismanagement of the economy.
BUSINESS REPORT