The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has scoffed at Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s 2020 budget proposal which it deems “anti-workers”.
ZCTU president Peter Mutasa made the comments while contributing to debate during the post-2020 budget breakfast meeting last week. He said:
With respect on behalf of labour, there is nothing much for workers and poor citizens, we take the mantra associated with this document as rhetoric since we have heard it before. It can only be pro-poor when we taste it on our tables.
… currently, we can’t buy bread, clothes and rentals but these were the major issues that we thought will be addressed. We have seen a lot of complicated statistics in the budget.
Mutasa added that the budget is elitist and bookish, and does not address the aspirations of people in remote parts of the country.
He bemoaned the government’s aversion to dialogue with labour and it’s heavy-handedness when dealing with protesting workers.