Zim Govt Pushing People Further Into Poverty - UN Group

5 years agoMon, 08 Apr 2019 10:03:27 GMT

Zim Govt Pushing People Further Into Poverty - UN Group

A panel of United Nations (UN) Experts reckon that the government’s austerity measures have worsened the plight of poor citizens as they were introduced without any safety nets for them.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube has been preaching ‘Austerity for Prosperity’ since assuming office. However, in a statement released last Thursday, the UN group said:

We are gravely concerned that, as the situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates, the Government is pushing people further into poverty.

We are not aware of any Government measures to provide even minimal safety nets for those who are already living on an economic cliff-edge and who will suffer the most from these regressive policies.
The impact of economic reforms on human rights must be assessed against international norms and standards, in line with the Guiding Principles, on human rights impact assessments of economic reforms.
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However, there are serious concerns about how the burdens of austerity will be shared.

Ncube has been striving to cut the huge government deficit which has been expanding over the years amid a dwindling revenue base.

To achieve that, Ncube introduced a 2% tax on all electronic money transfers exceeding RGS$10.00 in 2018.

The government followed that by hiking the price of fuel in January, which led to widespread riots which were only halted by the uses of brute force by security agencies.